Originally Posted by N0T0RI0US

Its come to my attention our Registration page hasn't been working and that many of you we're unable to register for the eB Community.
Well no long! Our registration page has been fixed and everything seems to be working now :) If you tried registering before and failed please try again and become apart of our community today!

Hey everyone!

Just a heads up, I've been working on building a new Community section for everyone to use.
This new system should be alot easier to use and get around and doesn't include alot of the stuff this system has. With that being said the new system is more of a blog. You all are free to join and post stuff if you'd like.

Check out the new EpicBattles Community here http://new.ebcommunity.net
Make sure to register! You can register using Facebook or Twitter to make it easier.

Enjoy!!

Originally Posted by N0T0RI0US

Hey there fellow gamer's!

Today we're gonna be doing some site maintenance to try and fix the problems caused by our fabulous web host (i don't recommend these people or endorse them in anyway). Parts of the site may be down or look strange during this time. Hang in there, We'll get it fixed :)

Thanks for your patience and happy gaming!

TOKYO - Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced that it will release a 24-inch 3D Display available this fall in Japan, North America, Europe/PAL territories, and Asian countries/regions. For North America, the 3D Display comes bundled with 3D Glasses, an HDMI cable and the highly anticipated Resistance 3 title from Insomniac Games for PlayStation 3 (PS3) at an attractive recommended retail price (RRP) of US$499.99. 3D Glasses included in the 3D Display bundle will also be sold separately, concurrently with the 3D Display , at RRP of US$69.99 in USA. Through the introduction of this new product, PS3 users will have easy access to all of their 3D entertainment by simply connecting PS3 to the 3D Display.

The 3D Display features a 24-inch full HD LCD display and, in an industry first for its size*1, the display adopts quad-speed frame sequential display technology that is able to minimize crosstalk*2 distortion, delivering stunningly realistic 3D viewing experiences. The 3D Display supports several 3D formats, including "frame packing," "top and bottom" and "side by side," which will offer users various options for enjoying 3D.

The 3D display offers a broad range of other attractive features, including:

Full high-definition display
The display features high contrast (5000:1), wide viewing angle (176 degree) high response time (4ms GTG average), delivering users with crisp high-quality image in stereoscopic 3D, as well as in 2D.

Special feature for two-player mode
Designed to deliver the ultimate gaming experience only possible on the 3D Display, it utilizes new, proprietary technology, that allows two players playing a multi-player game to see individual, unique, full-screen images of gameplay using the bundled 3D Glasses and supported software title.

High quality sound
The 3D Display adopts stereo 2ch+subwoofer speakers that can generate a broad range of sound from low pitch to high pitch. Featuring stereo 2ch incorporated on the side of the screen, right and left sides, and subwoofer on the backside of the screen, users can enjoy games and other entertainment content with high quality and dynamic sound.

Slim, sleek design
Adopting edge-LED lighting as the backlight, the 3D Display is 35 mm thin (the thickest part) and features a curved line form factor that is both stylish and unobtrusive in living spaces, complementing the sleek design of the PS3 system.

3D Glasses
The 3D Glasses come with a rechargeable lithium ion battery to enable quick and efficient charging time. A three minute charge results in three hours of use, while a 45 minute charge provides 30 hours of use.

Versatility for the supported devices
Along with 3D Glasses, the 3D Display comes bundled with an HDMI cable to provide high-definition 3D entertainment out of the box. The display adopts two HDMI input connectors, allowing users to connect the display to the PS3 system as well as to other HDMI-supported device*3. Some devices including PlayStation 2 and PSP (PlayStation Portable) can be connected to the 3D Display by using a component input connector.

Other features
With quick start-up mode, users will only have to wait for one second after pushing the power button to boot the display. The 3D Display also offers a power saving mode which shifts to auto standby if it does not receive a video signal for more than five seconds. Additionally users can utilize the separately sold BD remote control (CECH-ZRC1), incorporating infrared transmission to operate the 3D Display remotely.

Through the introduction of new peripherals, SCE will continue to further expand the PS3 platform and create a new world of computer entertainment that is only possible on PlayStation.


*1 Researched by SCE. As of June 5, 2011.
*2 Bleeding of the left and right image thus creating image ghosting
*3 The connected device needs to support stereoscopic 3D to enjoy 3D content.

TOKYO - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE)today announced PlayStation Vita (PS Vita) (PCH-1000 series) as the official platform name for the next generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP). Wi-Fi model will be available for 24,980 yen (including tax) in Japan, $249 in US and euro 249 in Europe, 3G/Wi-Fi model will be available for 29,980 yen (including tax) in Japan, $299 in US and euro 299 in Europe and successively launch in global market starting the end of 2011.

"Vita," which means "Life" in Latin, was chosen as the most appropriate name for the next generation portable entertainment system as it enables a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context. SCE is aiming to transform every aspect of user's daily life into an entertainment experience.

PS Vita incorporates a beautiful 5-inch multi-touch organic light emitting diode (OLED) as the front display and a unique multi-touch pad on the rear. Together with the front touch screen and the rear touch pad, PS Vita offers new game play experiences never before seen on any device, allowing users to interact directly with games in three dimension-like motion, through "touch, grab, trace, push and pull" finger motions. Also PS Vita features two analog sticks which enable a wider range of game genres to be brought into the portable experience, such as shooters, action games, and fighting games. Exciting and attractive new titles*1 are scheduled to be released from SCE Worldwide Studios, including "GRAVITY DAZE," "Uncharted Golden Abyss," "Little Deviants," "Hot Shots Golf," "Reality Fighter," "Hustle Kings," "ModNation Racers," "Wipeout 2048" and "Super Stardust Delta," as well as from a broad range of third party game developers and publishers, which will deliver value only possible on PS Vita.

Also, by having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, PS Vita will enable infinite possibilities for users to "encounter," "connect," "discover," "share" and "play" with friends wherever they are. On January 27, 2011, SCE announced the first PS Vita application, "near," which will come pre-installed. It will let users discover what games PS Vita users in the vicinity are or were recently playing, as well as let users share their game information. "near" also enables location-based gaming features such as "gifting," in which a user can access virtual game-related items that other users are sharing, through checking in at geographic locations that others have also visited. The virtual items can include content unlocked from games, such as character costumes, weapons, and treasures. Sharing these items between users adds a unique dimension to the portable gaming experience on PS Vita while enhancing the social connectivity among the PS Vita community.

Additionally, PS Vita will come pre-installed with a newly developed application called "Party." "Party" is an innovative application for a portable entertainment system which enables users to enjoy voice chat or text chat not only during online gaming, but also when users are playing different games or using different applications such as internet browser. Through "Party," which offers a new form of social networking, and "near," which enables users to share their game information with other users anywhere, anytime, users can dramatically expand the boundaries of interactive communication.

Also a tutorial application called "Welcome Park," developed specifically to guide every user about PS Vita's brand new user interface such as the front touch display and the multi-touch pad on the rear, will come pre-installed. By playing "Welcome Park," users can easily become accustomed to the three dimension-like finger motions used on PS Vita.

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is a man without a cause. After slaying all of his enemies and finally avenging the death of his father, Ezio finds himself at a crossroads. The iconic assassin seeks help finding a revelation to the meaning of his life, and whether being a ruthless killer is worth the considerable personal cost.

Though Ubisoft is by no means preparing to end its Assassin's Creed franchise, there is a great deal of finality and polish evident in this third chapter in the ACII saga. This is the last we will see of Ezio. This is the last we'll see of Altair. As a result every element of the game, from combat to narrative, is being brought closer together, forming a more seamless, fluid experience that ultimately should result in a better game for you, the player.

The improvements are vast, but several stood out to me. The first was the "eagle sense," which is a more advanced and helpful version of the series' "eagle eye" concept. Among many other to-be-revealed mechanics, the eye will allow you to reveal patrol paths of enemies and detect them in the smoke released by smoke bombs you create.

You wanted some more bombs? Ubisoft has been listening. Adding to Ezio's vast arsenal are various types of ingredients that can be collected and used to assemble a wide variety of explosive weaponry. Want to simply confuse your enemies and sneak away? Smoke will be your friend. Want to blow some **** up? You can do that too.

The E3 demo continued to show off some very impressive sequences, including one that was truly stunning. Towards the end of my session, Ezio was confronted with a tough series of obstacles. The boat he needed to catch was sailing away, with dozens of other vessels - and enemy soldiers - in the way. It was a seemingly impossible task, until the Ubisoft rep took possession of Greek Fire.

Greek Fire is effectively the ancient equivalent of a flame thrower. Lighting up a few boats set off one of the coolest sequences I've ever seen in an AC game. As ships exploded, collapsed and burst into flames around Ezio, he began to battle his way toward his goal, sometimes running on foot and sometimes getting an assist from his new hook tool. The hook, which often allows Ezio to turn cables into zip lines, can also be used offensively to grapple with enemies and maneuver around them in combat.

What made this sequence so impressive wasn't just the stunning visuals of dozens of boats being destroyed, but watching how Ubisoft cleverly inserted a pathway for Ezio to traverse. It's subtle but very clear, and almost seems logical and seamless. Better yet, it adds to the notion that you're playing as a veteran assassin, one that can overcome any challenge.

Watching Ezio sail away as an entire harbor collapses in flames behind him is an incredible sight. Ubisoft's next installment in the AC franchise seems poised to best its previous efforts, which is no small feat. The publisher is refining and enhancing key concepts (Eagle Sense, fluidity of combat), adding cool weaponry and tools (bombs, the zip line hook) and keeping what fans love (stealth and direct combat styles, recruiting and property management). If all goes well, Assassin's Creed will continue to prove it is one of the great modern franchises in the video game industry.

Xbox Live head Marc Whitten took Microsoft's stage today at E3 to announce several new dashboard updates and features for the service.

Whitten said the new Xbox 360 dashboard can be controlled completely with your voice. You can also access your PC media libraries using Kinect. As for partnerships, Whitten announced Youtube is coming to Xbox Live. He did not specify whether or not it would fully support Youtube or if it's select content.

Xbox Bing was also announced with voice command search. "You say it, Xbox finds it," Whitten said. Additionally, Xbox Live TV was announced with voice command DVR support.

UFC pay-per-view is also coming to Xbox live. Company president Dana White took the stage to make the announcement.

These updates will go live in the fall.

At Ubisoft's E3 2011 press conference this afternoon, the company announced Just Dance 3, the third game in the mega-successful Just Dance series.

Just Dance 3 is coming to Xbox 360 for Kinect, PlayStation 3 on Move, and Wii worldwide on October 11.

"The Just Dance brand has truly become a worldwide phenomenon with over 30 million people playing Just Dance," said Tony Key, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft, U.S.

Just Dance 3 includes more than 40 tracks, including pop, hip-hop, rock, R&B, country, disco, funk, and more, and feature new gameplay modes: Four-player choreographies, dynamic environments on Wii and a new "Shout Out!" feature on Kinect, allowing players to earn additional points by yelling song verses.

Confirmed tracks for Just Dance 3 include:

• - 2 Unlimited – "No Limit"
• - Black Eyed Peas – "Pump It"
• - Duck Sauce – "Barbra Streisand"
• - Groove Century – "Boogie Wonderland"
• - Gwen Stefani – "What You Waiting For"
• - Katy Perry – "California Gurls"
• - Kiss – "I Was Made For Lovin' You"
• - Laura Bell Bundy – "Giddy On Up (Giddy On Out)"
• - LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – "Party Rock Anthem"
• - MIKA – "Lollipop"
• - Taio Cruz – "Dynamite"

EA's E3 2011 press conference is in full swing, and a demonstration of Need for Speed: The Run revealed a number of details regarding the upcoming racer.

In the Run, you'll be racing across the country from San Francisco to New York, avoiding an extremely aggressive police force along the way. Your career will be tracked by the Autolog system, which was introduced in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and tracks your progress, along with the progress of your friends.



During the demonstration, the presenter officially revealed that the action will take place on-foot as well as on the road. In a live gameplay demonstration, an intense race through the rain ended with a devastating crash, which forced the character to sprint away from his wrecked vehicle and through a variety of alleys and buildings. The action looked to be governed by quick-time events (QTEs) which called for immediate button prompts during jumps.

The chase continued with the character brawling with a cop and jacking a police car, where the action once again returned to the road. That is until another wreck left our hero on the tracks of an oncoming train.

Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference confirmed that Dance Central 2 is in the works for Xbox 360. The game, which has players using Kinect (the system's motion sensing peripheral) to pull off a series of dance moves will support voice control and will feature a campaign mode. It will also support multi-player dancing for up to two players.



This title is the follow-up to Dance central, the 2010 music game developed by Harmonix. It will allow players to port all of their songs from the first game, and will also feature a host of brand new songs to get down to.

Microsoft announced this morning that it will release Halo 4 holiday 2012 for Xbox 360.

Microsoft made the announcement via a cinematic trailer at the end of its 2011 E3 press conference. Halo 4 marks the first proper Halo title created outside of creator Bungie, who signed off the series with 2010's Halo: Reach. Instead, Halo 4 will be the first major release from 343 Industries, Microsoft's internal Halo studio.

343i currently operates Halo Waypoint, a central hub for Halo content on Xbox Live. 343i also coordinated with developers Certain Affinity for Halo: Reach's Defiant Map Pack, and is working with Saber Interactive and Certain Affinity on this year's Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved using the Halo: Reach engine slated for this November.

President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, Don Mattrick, described the game as the "beginning of a new trilogy" in the franchise, signaling a return to the narrative of the Master Chief, who last appeared in 2007's Halo 3.

Halo 4 releases holiday 2012.


Videos & Media



Game Biography
Halo 4 is the seventh video game in the best-selling Halo franchise. Halo 4 is intended to be the first of a new trilogy of Halo series games. Whereas the previous Halo games were developed by Bungie, Halo 4 will be developed by 343 Industries. The game continues some time after the ending of Halo 3, and marks the return of the Master Chief as the main protagonist. Cortana will also appear in the game. The official website was launched shortly after the E3 press conference, and states: "Set in the aftermath of Halo 3, Master Chief returns to confront his own destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. Halo 4 marks the start of a new trilogy that begins with its release in 2012."

Season 7 Ep. 47 | Added: October 30, 2010


Tribes is back, Halloween madness and DeadMaus plays Minecraft.

This is Inside Gaming for October 30th, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 46 | Added: October 27, 2010


Valve pays out, Billy's BlizzCon Adventure and game releases o' plenty.

This is Inside Gaming for October 27th, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 45 | Added: October 23, 2010


Some New Vegas DLC, the 360 gets an update and Blizzcon goes live. Lazy eye is for the over privileged.

This is Inside Gaming for October 23rd, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 44 | Added: October 20, 2010


Pirates get sunk, Civ 5 gets a patch and Duke 3D goes next gen.

This is Inside Gaming for October 20th, 2010!

Season 7 Ep. 37 | Added: October 13, 2010


The X-Men are back, Gears of War 3 gets a beta, and Uncharted reaches for the stars.

This is Inside Gaming for October 13th, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 42 | Added: October 16, 2010


Och spelar lite DotA 2, Gran Turismo 5 takes a pit stop and Clap Trap goes game of the year.

I hear you man, this is Inside Gaming for October 16th, 2010!

Season 7 Ep. 33 | Added: October 6, 2010


Team Fortress 2 gets an update at a cost, Beyond Good and Evil goes HD and Gears 3 gets delayed.

This is Inside Gaming for October 6th, 2010

Season 7 Ep. 32 | Added: October 2, 2010


Zombies! Zombies! and...more Zombies?

This is Inside Gaming for October 2nd, 2010!

Season 7 Ep. 31 | Added: September 29, 2010


Kotick Talks smack, Betas galore, and Reach DLC(?)

This is Inside Gaming for blah blah blah.

Season 7 Ep. 31 | Added: September 25, 2010


Space marines are gay! Spider-man and Wesker together at last, and Bioshock Infinite looks Godly.

This is Inside Gaming for September 25, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 30 | Added: September 22, 2010


The PSP2 gets outed, APB shuts down and dragons..why not.

This is Inside Gaming for September 22nd, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 27 | Added: September 18, 2010


TGS updates, Martian delays and the Tester Season 2.

This is Inside Gaming for September 18th, 2010.

Season 7 Ep. 26 | Added: September 15, 2010


Consoles have birthdays, LOTR goes free and some Halo Reach special surprises

This is Inside Gaming for September 15th, 2010.

Season 6 Ep. 197 | Added: September 01, 2010


4Chan schools Zelda, Killcam invades my show and our extended hands on with Halo Reach.

This is Inside Gaming for September 1st, 2010.

Season 6 Ep. 196 | Added: August 28, 2010


Time for some Inside Gaming action! Hope you got 10 minutes to spare.
Wii for cheap, keys to the city and some Portal 2 co-op.

This is Inside Gaming for August 28th, 2010.

Season 6 Ep. 174 | Added: August 18, 2010


Zombies, QuakeCon check in, and some guy's voice that's not The Dead Pixel.

This is Inside Gaming for Wednesday, August 18th, 2010.

Season 6 Ep. 168 | Added: August 11, 2010


Crysis 2 gets delayed, new Halo Reach Maps are revealed, and some all-new Call of Duty action.

This is Inside Gaming for August 11th, 2010.

Season 6 Ep. 167 | Added: August 07, 2010


Win a car! Download some stuff and ask away.

This is Inside Gaming for August 7th, 2010.

Season 6 Ep. 166 | Added: August 04, 2010


Sales in Space! Dethklok gets canned! Linkin Park still sucks!

This is Inside Gaming for August 4th, 2010.

Ah yes i have once again forgot to update the Inside Gaming blog and for this i am very sorry. But! fear not i will be adding the newer Episodes of Inside Gaming here shortly.

The new episodes if you missed include lots of new gaming goodies including some halo: reach stuff, console birthdays and much much more so stick around and watch.

Also if you have no clue what Inside Gaming is its a weekly podcast video from Machinima that updates all you gamers on the newest releases, addons and gaming news. If you still have no clue what i'm talking about your retarded, That is all. :D

Jul 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 145


Inside Gaming: Dragon Age Re-Origined, Cutest X-Man Ever, & Kitties Galore!

Dragon Age Re-Origined, the cutest X-Man ever, and Kitties Galore!

This is Inside Gaming for July 14th, 2010.

Jun 29, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 143


Inside Gaming: Transformers, Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft Cataclysm.

Pre-Order Blunders, a Team Fortress 2 midas update and some MMO gameplay erotic fiction without the fiction.

This is Inside Gaming for June 10th, 2010.

Jun 29, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 143


Inside Gaming: Metal Gear Solid Rising, Metro 2033 Sequel, Crysis 2 TV

Long live MGS, Milo's a fake and some Crysis 2 TV.

This is Inside Gaming for July 7th, 2010.

Jun 29, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 142


Inside Gaming: Dead Rising 2 delayed, Frag Cup 2, Best Game Ever!

Day of the delayed, another Frag Cup and the literally the best game ever.

This is Inside Gaming for July 3rd, 2010.

Jun 29, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 140


Inside Gaming: New Xbox, Macs Counter Strike Source, Pixel's Helmet Rebuilt.

Another Xbox, CSS for dummies, and an all-new helmut.

This is Inside Gaming for June 30th, 2010.

Jun 25, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 139


Inside Gaming: COD Monthly Fee, Kinect, Resident Evil, E3 Press Conferences (Video Game News) S06E39

Call of Duty gets a monthly fee, the Kinect gets priced and the latest Resident Evil on a new platform. Plus, a recap of the big E3 press conferences!

This is Inside Gaming for June 26th, 2010.

Nintendo wants you to shoot your face off.

In addition to the games and movie trailers, Nintendo had a few tech demos for the 3DS in its booth. In Face Ace, players have to hold the DS up and align their face with the face outline that shows up on the upper screen. When everything is matched up, the camera snaps a picture of the player's face, and then morphs that photo, wrapping the face around a sphere and popping a helmet on top.



After your face is done morphing, multiple versions of it will pop up on the screen. Your goal is to lob balls at as many of them as possible. Every so often, another sphere (this one plastered with the face of the woman our DS was tied to) would pop up and was worth even more points if you managed to hit it. In the background was the view from the camera on the back of the 3DS.

The booth rep we spoke with said that Face Ace was a tech demo to show off some of the capability of the 3DS, so it's possible that it will never be seen again after this E3. However, it's also possible that Nintendo might choose to take the show's tech demos and bundle them together as a larger set of minigames or even distribute them in the DSiWare shop when the 3DS finally comes out. We're ready for that now.

Non-playable but certainly realtime!

One of the no-brainer games hitting the Nintendo 3DS is Mario Kart, and the game is at E3 but in a non-playable form. The demo shows off the game's engine (running at 60 frames per second) as well as two characters: Mario and Luigi. Having the ability to see down into the distance is a fantastic effect on the 3DS, and I'm sure it will help to see how far away you are from other racers when you can actually, you know, play it.

I did notice a subtle feature being shown in this demo: Mario and Luigi will look at each other as they get closer to each other. Not just in head turning, but also in eyeball rolling. They'll give each other focused glares as they're driving, something that I've never seen done in previous versions of Mario Kart.



I saw tracks designed around the Wii Sports Resort island as well as the classic Peach castle (complete with blossom petals falling to the road and into the player's face).

But there's not much to this demo other than a camera that's spinning around Mario and Luigi. Non playable as of right now.

Company announces new partnership to create an online gaming portal

fter years of being removed from the games industry, Virgin Gaming has partnered with World Gaming to create a new online competitive gaming platform.

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson announced the deal today, giving players of all skill level a place to challenge each other online in tournaments and head to head matches for prizes.

"Gamers want something new, something interactive and something fun. Virgin Gaming is just that – access to play the best games in super competitive tournaments with anyone in the world and win the biggest prizes and the most rewards," said Branson.

"We've had great success with Virgin Games and Virgin Interactive Entertainment and recognized the enormous potential of an online community of 40 million daily users. I welcome gamers from novice to expert to join the online Virgin Gaming community."

To learn more, head over to Virgin Gaming's official website.

The virtual life simulator moves into three dimensions.

There were a slew of big franchises in the 3DS section of Nintendo's booth, including The Sims 3, one of the biggest selling series in videogame-dom. The demo available for us to play was just the character creator; as with most Sims games, you were able to select skin color, clothing styles and colors, hair color and style, plus a slew of face customization options.



See this? It wasn't part of our demo, but it looks fun, doesn't it?


Even though there was no in-game content represented in the demo, the Sims series is a life simulator -- and now you'll be able to live that virtual life in three full dimensions.



This Sim's face is 3D, we promise, even if you can't see it.

Microsoft cuts $50 off the older consoles.

Microsoft is looking to clear retail channels of the old Xbox 360 models in favor of the sleek new ones.

The company reduced the price of the Xbox 360 Arcade and Xbox 360 Elite by $50 today. The bundles will now be $149 and $249, respectfully.

Walmart is running a special Father's Day deal through June 20 for those that purchase the Arcade unit. Customers will receive a $50 Walmart gift card, two bonus games (Banjo-Kazoole: Nuts & Bolts and Viva Pinata) and a wireless controller.

Can rocking out without peripherals still be fun?

If you enjoyed LEGO Rock Band then you'll probably be into the upcoming Rock Band 3 for DS. It features none of the plastic peripherals that helped make the franchise popular -- or even adaptations of them as the Guitar Hero franchise has on DS -- instead focusing solely on making the player listen to the instrument tracks and tap the DS' buttons in rhythm.

In RB3 players can switch between the various instruments at will, with each of the games 25 songs requiring players to play all the instruments. Neglecting a specific instrument will eventually cause you to fail the entire song, making this version of Rock Band about much more than just nailing the tracks your playing; this time around you have to manage just how much time you spend on each instrument, making sure to switch before you're in trouble.

The game has several modes, including a single player player Career as well as competitive multiplayer. The career mode is all about building up your band from unknown local act to superstars, while the competitive mode is all about smashing on up to three other players. In multiplayer you select a song and then drop in, with the player who gets the highest score winning. However, on top of competing for overall score, players can jump into the same instrument track as their opponent, challenging them on specific song segments to see who can nail it the best.

Having played a ton of the home console versions of Rock Band I found it hard to transition from strumming on a guitar or tapping on a drumset to tapping the face buttons and D pad of the DS. However, after a few songs I was rocking out with the Harmonix employees, sometimes even beating them in the multiplayer match I played. I'm still not convinced that RB3 on DS is a great "Rock Band" game, but I wouldn't be surprised if people who love portable rhythm games fall for it all the same.

We finally hit the ice with full five-on-five hockey.

While it's true that we just previewed NHL 11 one week ago, now that I've played full five-on-five hockey for myself, I thought a quick update on the game's progress was warranted. So while we were previously confined to one-on-one hockey in order to properly demo the snazzy new physics that govern all of the on-ice action, EA Sports took off the restraints and opened it up to a full game of hockey for E3.

I was certainly impressed with the new physics capabilities in my first NHL 11 demo, and that feeling only grew once I got into a real game. Checks look fantastic, especially when the boards get involved. Players realistically roll and glance off of the boards, depending on the strength of the impact I was able to land. But the physics weren't confined to just interactions between players and the environment, they also seemed to perform well when two players collided on open ice. Everything feels like a real object with very little clipping taking place. One time I upended a player, only to have his leg get caught for a split-second under my arm. Not in an unnatural way, either. Just about everything looked exactly as it should.

In order to combat all of this crazy checking action, the developers from EA's Vancouver studio have given players a new quick deke ability. The mechanics are extraordinarily easy. All you have to do is hold the left shoulder button and flick the right analog stick to the right or left and your guy will pull off a deke. Of course, as soon as I successfully pulled off my first deke, I tried to take a wrist shot and wound up snapping my stick. It was a little disgruntling, but it was still pretty damn cool.

The final addition to NHL 11 to make its way into EA Sports' E3 demo was user-controlled celebrations. By using both the face buttons and triggers, players can access a large library of goal celebrations. The one I saw was essentially a guy sliding face-first down on the ice, hands outstretched. I was told there were plenty more to be had, but that's all I saw in my short demo at E3.

We'll have more info on NHL 11 as it becomes available. The game is scheduled to launch on September 14 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Skull creation? Full customization? New armor ability? Whaaaaaaa?

The Firefight multiplayer mode Bungie introduced in Halo 3: ODST is back in Halo: Reach, and it's looking to be even crazier (and more flexible) than its predecessor. At a special preview event at E3 2010, Microsoft and Bungie gave us a look at the new and improved Firefight. Here's what's new.

First off, you'll get the full matchmaking experience here, unlike in ODST. You'll be able to customize your matches to your heart's content – weapons, maps, game durations and enemy behavior will all be tweakable.

There are multiple game types this time around, too. Default is the most general of the lot. It's a one-set match that's designed to be shorter and more casual. Pop in, pop out, go eat a steak. Classic mode is just what you played in ODST. You know, because it's already classic. Generator Defense is also a mode in Firefight now (you remember this gametype from the Reach beta that ran last month), and a newcomer called Rocket Fight sounds like it could become a new favorite. This mode is just you, your buddies, armor abilities, and an infinite supply of rockets. Yeah, that just happened.

You'll also have some new weapons to play with. The Target Locator may not have a sexy name, but it makes up for that by destroying the hell out of things. Use it to paint targets, and you'll be rewarded by a bombardment by an orbiting fleet. Think Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War mixed with the world's scariest airstrike. And remember the Concussion Rifle from the latest campaign demo? It fires explosive plasma rounds, and it's in Firefight, too. Deadly combination. And you can stop wondering – the Fuel Rod gun is back in Halo: Reach (and in Firefight).

Our look at Firefight unveiled a brand-new armor ability called Drop Shield. This one's sort of a mix between the bubble shield and regenerator from Halo 3. Power it up, and it'll give you and your friends some space to chill and heal for a bit.

Just like the overall Reach multiplayer, Firefight will come with game-specific rewards and challenges, available on a weekly and daily basis. Meeting challenges will net you special armor permutations. And the only way to get them is by playing Firefight.

From what we're being told, Firefight in Reach will be far more customizable than ever before. For example, you'll be able to create your own skulls that can totally change the pace and feel of your Firefight matches. You can make up to three, altering the traits of your Spartans, armor abilities and waves. Want to bump your health up to 200% and boost weapon damage? Feel free (wimp). This is basically Firefight any way you want it.

Bungie was also showing off two new maps, Waterfront and Beachhead, neither of which were in the Reach beta. This is all just the tip of the Firefight spear. We'll have full-fledged hands-on impressions of the mode later tonight, along with brand-new direct feed video of Bungie's latest title in action. So keep watching IGN for more.

A great proof of concept.

With the precious little time I had with Nintendo's recently announced 3DS, I was able to actually play one game: 3D Hopper. A simple game about moving a cat on a pogo stick to an exit in the environment, it served as a great demonstration of how 3D can change the way you play.

The 3D worked fantastically, and added depth to my perspective that allowed me to easily tell when my cat was in or out of the foreground. This in turn allowed me to quickly navigate the game's vertical platforming, as I could tell when my cat was out from under obstructions that kept him from jumping higher. Turning off the 3D effect on the 3DS proved just how important the effect is, as the levels became clunky and frustrating when I lost the sense of depth that Nintendo's new handheld brings. I don't think 3D Hopper's going to blow anyone away as a game, but as a proof of how powerful and useful a tool 3D can be it works perfectly.

Cammy and Zangief finally have an ETA.

Capcom is finally ready to tell folks when they can expect the new characters for the iPhone edition of Street Fighter IV. Well, sort of. The window I got out of Capcom at E3 this afternoon was "end of June."

So, if you already have Street Fighter IV, check your App Store updates as the month draws to a close to see if the free new characters – Cammy and Zangief – are ready for download. And once the update is out, Capcom will also replace the existing game in the App Store with a new version that already includes Cammy and Zangief in the original download.

Fighting from cover and helicopter cockpits.

Since Call of Duty is pretty much an annual thing now, it may be a little difficult to get excited about each release. Even though the formula may be familiar at this point, this year's game, Treyarch's Black Ops, is still looking like it'll deliver an exciting first-person shooting experience. At E3 2010 we saw a demo of two stages. The first, called WMD, took place in a snowy Russian mountain range as a covert ops unit tried to storm a facility.

Things didn't start out in the snow, however. The action began as two pilots jump into a space-faring aircraft and blast off. You get a degree of control here as you initiate the jets, at which point the craft soars into low orbit. One of the pilots then focuses his attention on a small screen inside the cockpit and starts to twiddle knobs. On the small screen is visible a squad of soldiers who you can order around. The goal is to move them around between cover spots down on the ground while avoiding enemy trucks running along a nearby road. Eventually the troops can be moved into a nearby house, though they're not safe there for long.

A group of trucks pull up to the house and start unloading soldiers that search around. The orbital craft pilot orders the troops to head behind some trees, at which point control shifts to the squad on the ground. Staring through dense, snow-topped underbrush, your squad tries to stay quiet as the enemies stroll by. You're armed with a crossbow, and after the enemies pass you walk out into the snow and follow the squad leader to a cliff face.

After attaching a repelling line to a pipe running along the top of the cliff, you jump off and down the sheer rock face. Jumping and braking your fall is entirely under your control, letting you admire the view as you move further down. Eventually you need to attach a second line to a lower ledge, and after jumping off of there your character smashes through a window directly into an enemy establishment. Naturally, the next step is to kill everyone in the room and take over the substation. As your shots land, large plumes of blood explode from all those hit by bullets, making this version of Call of Duty seem especially bloody.

Having cleared the area the squad moves into a valley below. To stay quiet and avoid detection, you take advantage of your crossbow and snipe targets silently from afar with bolts. Eventually the enemy catches on and you can switch over to explosive bolts, which momentarily stick into their targets before detonating. The squad eventually battles its way inside a facility as enemies stream in from doors and across a multitude of catwalks. As Call of Duty vets should expect, the pace of combat is fast and fluid as you hide from enemy fire and pop out to deliver a few shots while aimed down the sights, or get in close for a deadly melee strike.

After the zone's been cleared you and your squad run back outside and are assaulted by an enemy with a rocket. The explosive slams into a nearby slope and the shock causes the snowy hillside to start rumbling, presumably indicating an avalanche is on the way. To escape, your squad has no choice but to charge to the edge of a cliff and hop off into the void, at which point this portion of the demo ended.

The second half was a gameplay section you may have already seen at E3 2010 if you were watching the Microsoft press briefing. In this section two soldiers take over an attack helicopter and make a run through a river valley blowing up nearly everything in sight. Everything from bridges to oil pipelines to enemy attack choppers, gunboats, soldiers, buildings and trucks can be destroyed in a fiery ruin by rockets and machine gun fire as the chopper flies through, towards a base.

Overall the parts shown looked to be very much along the lines of what Call of Duty fans would expect: lots of bullets, explosions, dead bodies, and over the top action scenarios. High quality sound and detailed visuals helped make it more impressive, and if nothing else it should at least be an exciting game when it's made available on November 9th, 2010.

We got a hands-on with Vicarious Visions' latest handheld project.

Vicarious Visions is pretty much the only development studio that's embraced every single one of Nintendo's handhelds on Day One. With the Game Boy Advance, the team brought Tony Hawk 2 to life. On the Nintendo DS, we got Spider-Man 2. With the Nintendo DSi, Mixed Messages. And now, with the 3DS, Vicarious Visions is working to bring another Activision to the handheld: Freestyle Games' DJ Hero. For the system's public debut, Vicarious Visions brought an early version of DJ Hero 3D to the playable systems: four 3DS systems had a copy of this rhythm game running at Nintendo's booth.

The game doesn't feature a turntable peripheral, so don't expect a direct translation of the console game. Instead, it's a touch-screen recreation: as notes flow down the on-screen turntable, you tap, stroke or scribble the stylus on the lower screen to follow along with the mash-up beat. You tap when a ball hits the beat line, you slide left or right when you have arrows telling you move the slider, and you scribble up and down to "scratch." All in time to the beat.



hile the in-game graphics were certainly on par with console versions – a testament to the power of the 3DS processor – the stereoscopic 3D effects were a bit on the weak side. At least during the game. At the start of the track, the camera swooped in to show the DJ at the table, and the DJ Hero logo flipped right into the viewer's face. What the game showed was the high quality, multitrack audio that the system can produce. It sounded great coming through the headphones.

No release date was revealed, nor a complete tracklist of the mash-ups you'll play in the DS version.

This s*** just got real.

Even though music games have been wildly popular for years now, there are still the party poopers who shake their heads, fold their arms, and say, "Why not just play a real guitar?" Well, now those naysayers don't have much of an argument, because Rock Band 3 does have a real guitar. The Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar controller is a fully-functioning six-string instrument that can be used both with the game and with an amplifier. Need a break at band practice? Just unplug from your amp, walk into the living room, and play some Rock Band 3. We got our hands on the controller today and received an extensive tutorial from Harmonix on how it works.

When using this real guitar controller Rock Band will look a little different than what you are used to. Gone are the colored buttons at the bottom of the screen. Now you see representations of the six guitar strings and numbers fall towards you, indicating the fret you should hold down on each string. At the very bottom of the screen the strings will light up and display a number indicating where your hand is on the neck.



Chords are indicated by multiple numbers falling down the screen, silhouetted by a shape that should become recognizable to you over time. For instance, after spending some time with Rock Band 3 you should be able to recognize its shape for a power chord and adapt your fingers to match it. Harmonix described it like those game shows where players have to match their body shape to a silhouette cut in a moving wall or else they'll get knocked over.

Along the left of the screen you'll see chord indicators like A or Em. But that's not going to be much help to you unless you know your guitar chords. Luckily, Rock Band 3 should include a tutorial that teaches you both how to read the game's notation and the basics of guitar chords. The way we understand it, every song in the game will have its own tutorial.

When using the guitar on "easy" difficulty you'll only pluck one note at a time and skip many notes of a song entirely. I think most gamers will be able to use the Fender guitar on easy. But when you're using it on "expert" you're pretty much playing guitar at that point. The one thing you can't do with it is play harmonic notes, which are performed by very lightly touching a string on the neck of a guitar and plucking. The result is a very high note and the technique is used to reach notes that are either too far away from where your hand is at the moment or altogether impossible to play otherwise on the instrument. But since the Fender guitar controller requires you to hold down a fret in order for it to read your input, harmonic notes aren't possible.

Now let's all take a moment to ponder the irony that harmonic notes aren't possible in a game made by Harmonix.

The Fender guitar connects to your console through a midi out. Madcatz, the peripheral maker that is creating the other new guitar controller for Rock Band 3 (the one with a hundred buttons), is creating a midi interface that will act as the middle man between the Fender guitar and your console. The fact that it has a midi out means it can be used as a midi controller in other music software applications.

Next to the midi out you'll also find a quarter inch audio cable jack so you can connect it to an amplifier. During our demo Harmonix played Rock Band 3 with the Fender guitar while it was simultaneously hooked up to an amp, so sound was coming from the game and from the amplifier. This may not have many practical applications, but it did demonstrate that, on expert, using the Fender guitar in the game is just like playing the real song.

The real Fender guitar controller for Rock Band 3 is definitely impressive, but we have yet to see how it will ease guitar newcomers into the instrument. Without very clear, very helpful tutorials gamers may be very confused by it. But Harmonix, in general, tends to know what it's doing.

Punch, kick and slam people's faces into air conditioners.

From United Front Games, the studio that made ModNation Racers for PlayStation 3, comes a bloody action game meant as a reboot of the True Crime name. At E3 2010 we got a chance to see the game running as protagonist and undercover officer Wei punched and kicked his way through the street of Hong Kong where the game is set.

It's an open world game so you can expect a lot of the genre's standards to be in place, but United Front is trying to set its game apart with its combat system, among other things. When Wei gets in a fight, he can punch and kick and combo his opponents to death, eventually leading to an arm snap or debilitating kick to a knee joint. Instead of simply punching and dodging, you can also take advantage of the environment. When you've pummeled a foe enough you can choose the piece of the environment with which you want to interact. Sometimes that means you'll smash faces through TVs, toss enemies into dumpsters, push faces into air conditioner fan blades, or sometimes slam freezer doors into a foes' heads.

The game's not all combat. In on-foot chase sequences you'll bob and weave through crowds of NPCs while pursuing your target, taking care to not let any bystanders slow you down. Many times this just means swerving side to side as you run through, though Wei can also run up walls and hop across tables to more swiftly traverse environments.

Also shown was a driving mission where Wei hopped on a motorcycle and tore through the sunset streets of Hong Kong. When firing his weapon from on the back of the bike time would slow significantly to let you more easily line up a kill shot. Wei eventually makes contact with a gangster and takes him hostage as a fire fight breaks out, shoving him into a car trunk and taking off down the road while being chased by more cars and motorcycles. To fend them off he can fire out the window, targeting passengers of enemy vehicles and shooting out their tires.

The game looks to be violent and features plenty of coarse language, but still might be fun. It wasn't a hands-on demonstration, so we'll have to wait and see how it controls. The game's coming out this fall on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, so expect more coverage.

The elf population is set to explode.

Two weeks ago Turbine announced that Lord of the Rings Online was to follow Dungeons and Dragons Online and become free to play. In that time, the beta for free-LOTRO has received over a hundred thousand signups. The beta starts tomorrow, Wednesday the 16th.

When Turbine turned Dungeons and Dragons Online into a free-to-play game, they hoped to turn the failing game into something profitable. They expected a backlash from the community, and subscriber numbers to drop. Surprisingly, the community quickly adjusted, and the number of subscribers (now known as VIPs) in fact doubled.

So what has changed for free LOTRO? Well, for starters, it's free. Besides that, not a whole lot: all players, regardless of whether they pay a cent or not, will be able to participate in all of the early game and the epic story. Crafting and player houses will also remain totally fee-free.

Some special consumables and convenience items, as well as optional content, are going to cost you. This includes Lord of the Rings Online's player-versus-player system, Monster Play.

Subscribers aren't left out in the cold, though. They, now also VIPs, will receive 500 points a month and access to all the paid content.

Though it's not really playable, it's one of the best demos at the show.

he 3DS is a pretty amazing piece of kit, but there are very few "must see" games at the booth beyond the demos of stereoscopic 3D without the need for glasses. If there was one demo I'd recommend anyone see over everything else, it'd definitely be the demo for Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater.

The demo, like 90 percent of the 3DS software at the show, is not playable…but it is interactive. Players can move the camera around with the 3DS system's analog slide pad at specific points in the action. The demo is running in realtime, and it shows just how detailed the 3DS visual capabilities can be. This is the first generation of 3DS software, and already it's impressive.



The demo is slow crawl through the jungle where the camera will push through the foliage and slide along an enormous crocodile – this really shows off the texturing and lighting effects of the engine used in the game. Eventually you'll meet up with Snake and watch him bolt across a rope bridge after being pursued by a swarm of deadly jungle bugs. After a quick bit of acrobatics to show off the amazing depth of the 3DS system's stereoscopic display, you hit the title screen that shows off even more stereoscopic 3D in the title itself.

The graphics look on par with (or even better than) the PlayStation 2 version of Snake Eater – developers told us prior to the debut of the 3DS that the hardware is well beyond Wii and approaching 360/PS3 capabilities with what the system can do, and when you see this demo in action you can see why they would have said that.

No game details were revealed for Snake Eater – it was just a non-playable demo.

I've been dreaming of a sequel for years.

I've been waiting for a Pilotwings revival ever since Nintendo kicked Factor 5's GameCube version to the curb. I'm a huge Pilotwings fan both on the Super NES and the Nintendo 64, and it makes me super excited to learn that we're finally getting the next game in the series on the 3DS. Pilotwings Resort was fully playable at E3, even if it was just two mini games.



This game is more based on the Airplane option in Wii Sports Resort than it is on the Super NES original and Nintendo 64 sequel. In the 3DS version, you fly a plane through rings and jetpack into giant balloons around the Wii Resort island. Not only is the stereoscopic 3D effect helpful in seeing objects in the distance, the 3DS system's analog slide pad makes it a snap to move subtly and sharply while airborne.

The demo was far too short. I want more. Hopefully I'll get my wish by the time 3DS launches in the US.

Fox McCloud returns to the handheld in a remake of a N64 classic.

I've already got a big grin on my face for Nintendo bringing back Pilotwings for 3DS owners. But it just got a little wider after I saw another franchise that's heading to the stereoscopic 3D system: StarFox 64. That's right, the Nintendo 64 game with anthropomorphic animals is being revived for a fresh experience in full 3D.

The demo that's at the Electronic Entertainment Expo is a single level of action that's based on the opening mission in the Nintendo 64 game. But this isn't a mere port or emulation: the textures have been given a definite upgrade with sharper detail and higher resolution. And your on-screen reticule is in multiple levels so you can gauge depth as you blast away at the enemies that wander on-screen.



It's very early – there's no sound and your teammates don't pop up to ask for your assistance. But when you get to the end of the level the game goes into All Range Mode so you can fly in a full 360 fashion. The analog slider pad does a great job giving the tight control to handheld gamers.

I truly hope this game gets fleshed out for a full release. Judging by the list of games issued by Nintendo, that's what we're going to get. And I can't wait.

It's not a party without Wii Party.

It's easy to wonder why the heck you'd need another party game for the Wii, but Nintendo brings its trademark charm. If you enjoyed Wii Sports Resort or the mini-games from Wii Fit Plus, then this will be a perfect addition to your roster of family-friendly group games. Like the other games in the Nintendo's Wii series, Wii Party features your Miis, and features three categories: party, pair, and house party.

Party games are competitive titles for one to four players, and include Board Game Island, Globe Trot, Swap Meet, and Spin-Off Bingo; the game automatically fills in game-controlled Miis if you have fewer than four people playing. During the demo, we got to check out Board Game Island, which has players rolling dice and moving their Miis around a game board, racing to be the first to the end. Before each round, players must compete in a mini-game to determine rolling order; the winner gets to roll two dice instead of just one. The board includes helpful squares (like getting to move forward extra spaces), squares that hurt you, and squares that might do either, such as the flying saucer square, which has you trading positions with another randomly selected player.

The mini-games we saw included Derby Dash, a horse-racing game where you must use your riding crop at strategic points to spur on your horse without depleting your own energy; Back Attack, where each Mii has a target on his or her back, and the last one left un-shot wins; Crash Balls, featuring your Miis in clear plastic balls in a ring as they try and knock the other players into the holes in the corners; and Flap Hurdles, which has the Miis jumping over logs and barrels that are rolling toward them.

Pair games are cooperative titles for one or two players, and include Friend Connection, Balance Boat, and Match-Up. Balance Boat, which we got to play, has users working together to place up to 20 Miis on the masts of a ship while still keeping it balanced. Before each round of Mii placing, the players must play together in a mini-game; if they meet the goal set before them in the game, they'll each get a Mii of the same size, making it easier to keep the boat upright. However, if they don't perform well enough, they'll receive different-sized Miis.

We played Bumper Crops, which has both players sorting fruit into the proper baskets; Blastronauts, where Miis have to be steered through a series of asteroids without running into them; Pop Coast, which has players shooting balloons that are tied to presents while riding a roller coaster, trying to get as many presents to drop as possible; Fishin' Buddies, where Miis are trying to jointly land a big fish; and Paddle Pals, a river-rafting course that players must paddle through.

While we weren't able to play them, there are also a variety of House Party games (which are for two to four players) that turn the Wii Remotes themselves into the game. In Animal Tracker, players lay their Wii Remotes on a flat surface; an animal will appear on-screen, and players must try to be the first to grab the Wii Remote that makes the corresponding animal sound. In Hide 'n' Hunt, one player hides the Wii Remotes in a room, and then the other players must try and find them. The longer it takes, the more points the hider holds, and as time passes, the Wii Remotes start making noises to help out the seekers. Time Bomb has players passing a Wii Remote around as carefully as possible; the first player to accidentally shake the Remote loses. Word Bomb is similar, except players must name an object that fits a given category (such as Round Things), and the first person to get stuck is the loser. In Buddy Quiz, one player is assigned to answer a series of quiz questions while his friends try and guess how they thing the quiz-taker will answer.

Wii Party will be available for Wii owners to buy this coming holiday season -- just in time to give you a way to occupy all that family time you'll have.

Do you like to Move it, Move it?

Sony has outlined a list of titles that will support the PlayStation Move motion controller, set for release on September 19. Most of the titles below will support Move out of the box, while some already on the market (or due for release before the Move launch date) will receive a free download update at the date provided.

Here's the list of announced Move-supported titles:

First Party Titles

== Sports Champions, September 2010
== EyePet, September 2010
== Kung Fu Rider, September 2010
== Start the Party!, September 2010
== Echochrome 2 (PSN), September 2010
== Tumble (PSN), September 2010
== Hustle Kings, October 2010
== Pain! (PSN), October 2010
== TV Superstars, October 2010
== The Fight: Lights Out™, October 2010
== The Shoot, October 2010
== High Velocity Bowling (PSN) October 2010
== Heavy Rain, October 2010
== The Sly Collection, November 2010
== SingStar Dance, November 2010
== LittleBigPlanet 2, November 2010
== Beat Sketcher (PSN), Fall 2010
== SOCOM 4, Fall 2010
== Sorcery, 2011
== Heroes on the Move, 2011
== Killzone 3, 2011

Publisher Titles

== Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, September 2010
== Toy Story 3: The Video Game, September 2010
== The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, September 2010
== Brunswick Pro Bowling, September 2010
== Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, September 2010
== Time Crisis: Razing Storm, September 2010
== NBA 2K11, October 2010
== John Daly's ProStroke Golf, Fall 2010
== Racquet Sports, Fall 2010
== R.U.S.E., September 2010
== Kung-Fu Live, October 2010
== Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos, November 2010
== Tron Evolution, November 2010

Riding a Saber to outer space.

Your mission: Defend the planet from an alien invasion. You will fail. You will probably die. There is no hope -- the end is already written. But hey, you get to go into outer space for a little bit and ride around in a UNSC rocket ship called a Saber. At least you've got that going for you.

I recently sat in for a behind-closed-doors only demo of Halo: Reach's campaign, driven by Bungie's multiplayer lead Lars Bakken and Community Manager Brian Jarrard. It opened with the usual spiel about this being Bungie's most ambitious game to date and the studio's Halo finale. This is a prequel to the main Halo trilogy, telling the story of the fall of Planet Reach as it crumbles under a Covenant assault.

The demo was about 90% the same as what anybody that watched Microsoft's E3 press conference saw. If you missed it, just watch it in this handy embedded video right here.

As you may have noticed, all kinds of hot new features are shown off in this demo. The level is called Long Night of Solace, and like the rest of the campaign it can be played with up to four players cooperatively and with all of the skull and meta-game scoring options turned on or off as you please.

This section of the game involves a subset of Noble Team landing just outside of a battle zone and fighting their way in to a UNSC base. During the fight you could see Armor Abilities in use, executions on Elites and Grunts (the Grunt executions look completely hilarious), and a new Covenant weapon called the Concussion Rifle. That puppy is a bit like a grenade launcher, only it spits out your rage in plasma form.

Once the team fought its way into the UNSC base, it was on to the Saber for some in flight entertainment. This new vehicle is a multi-stage rocket that brings your Spartan up into orbit above Reach. If you play four player co-op, all team members will get their own Saber to pilot for a gigantic space battle.

This is where the public E3 demo ended, but my private demo continued. Bungie went on to show full space combat, Sabers against first Banshees and then the more sturdy Seraphs. It looked epic.



The Spartans job here is to defend the Anchor base, which is already in shambles. Banshees go down quickly with some machine gun fire and the shields on the Saber seemed more than capable of absorbing a few shots (The heads-up display shows both shield and hull strength, as well as thruster heat). If not, the Saber can also do quick 180 degree flips, barrel rolls, and side dodges. As the battle raged, I noticed that some of the scrap floating around could be bumped and blasted to start it moving -- the battlefield looks like it will slightly evolve as things progress.

Once the Seraphs arrived, it was time to break out the big guns. Sabers also have missiles that can lock onto enemy ships and then tear them to bits. I'm sure you're thinking what I am right now. These Sabers could be awesome in competitive multiplayer. Unfortunately, Bungie wouldn't talk about any possible new competitive modes these vehicles could be included in.

Bungie and Microsoft are holding a special evening event for Halo: Reach tonight. Expect more from IGN when we get back from that.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi make their 3D debut.

Here at E3 2010 there's like a hojillion 3DS titles. Most of them are new titles, though a few seem to be 3D ports of older games. On the third party side, Square Enix was showing off a video for Kingdom Hearts 3D. Sora's back, beyotches!

So it was just a trailer so it's hard to tell, but I think this might be a port of the original PS2 game, or at least a reimagining of it. The trailer starts off with Sora and Riku sitting out by the starfruit tree on Destiny Islands. Then Riku disappears in a swirling flash of light. Sora calls after him and runs around the island (the game switches to gameplay here).

Sora runs through the island a bit, showing off the locale. It looks exactly like it did in the PS2 game. The thing that makes me think it's not a port is that Sora already has the glide ability, which he uses to soar around the island a bit.

The game cuts again and shows Riku waking up Traverse Town (the main hub world of the PS2 game). He goes into a courtyard and is surrounded by a bunch of Heartless. Then he looks up and stuff gets crazy.

The sky starts raining Soras.

No seriously. A dozen unconscious Soras slowly float down from the sky like a cute boy meteor shower.

One of the Soras lands and busts out his Keyblade. The game switches back to gameplay mode here and shows Sora bashing the Heartless. After all the Heartless are defeated a huge soldier Heartless boss rises from the ground. Before Sora can battle him he snaps awake, back on Destiny Islands, sitting with Kairi by the starfruit tree. The camera pans up to the night sky and shows the title screen, Kingdom hearts DS.

Graphically it looks amazing, though it's hard to tell if this is totally legit, or if even the gameplay is really a cutscene. The island, and even Traverse Town look good in 3D, and the possibilities for the game are promising (the Gummi ship levels could finally be cool in 3D).

There are a few screens in the gallery, and we'll get more news on the game as soon as we can.

New title coming to PSP, alongside handheld EyePet.

Sony has revealed an all-new Patapon game at its E3 conference.

Marking the end of a countdown on Sony's site, Patapon 3 was glimpsed fleetingly as Sony displayed the forthcoming games for its PSP. From those few seconds of gameplay it seems that Patapon's unique formula remains untouched. An EyePet game was also revealed, as well as a chance to see The Third Birthday in action.

Expect to hear more on Patapon 3 as we hit the show floor later today

Remastered versions of EA classics coming to PlayStation 3.

Remastered versions of Medal of Honor Frontline and Dead Space: Extraction are coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 thanks to a deal between Sony and EA announced at E3.

PlayStation 2 classic Medal of Honor Frontline will be bundled with the limited edition of this year's Medal of Honor reboot, while the Dead Space 2 Limited Edition will come with a remastered and PlayStation Move enabled version of Wii shooter Dead Space: Extraction.

Hopefully we'll get to see more of these games at Sony's booth at today's show - check the site later for more details.

Sony goes premium with its online service.

PlayStation Network is no longer totally free.

During Sony's E3 2010 press conference, the company announced PlayStation Plus, a new subscription-based service for its PlayStation Network platform. Sony promises all the current features available for free on PlayStation Network will remain free; however, these new features will come at a cost.

By subscribing, users will gain access to "frequent discounts on PlayStation Store content, free and exclusive access to select games, full game trials, early invitations to select betas of popular games, and new functionality such as content downloads and updates which will automatically be 'pushed' to the PS3 system even when consumers are not using their system."

Additionally, PlayStation Plus members will have free access to titles including WipEout HD, Minis and PS one Classics such as Fieldrunners, Age of Zombies and Rally Cross, a full game trial of inFAMOUS, and discounts on downloadable content such as Fat Princess. Members will always have "access to their virtual library of free games."

You will be able to own these for the duration of your subscription. New content is expected to be added to PlayStation Plus every month.

A one-year subscription will run you $49.99, while a three-month subscription will cost $16.99. SCEA is also running a "limited time offer" giving subscribers 3 free bonus months for signing up for a 365-day subscription

PlayStation Plus launches on June 29, 2010.

Polyphony's awaited racer coming November this year.

At last; Gran Turismo 5 has been given a release date, with Polyphony's long-delayed driving simulator coming to the US on November 2.

A new trailer at Sony's E3 press conference highlighted the new features, showing off night racing, NASCAR and WRC as well as the Top Gear Test Track.

It also revealed the involvement of F1 hotshot Sebastien Vettel and Red Bull designer Adrian Newey – though it remains to be seen whether the Red Bull F1 car would feature.

There's no word on a release date outside of North America just yet – we'll look to bring you more once we hit the show floor.

Series reboot set for release next year.

Sweet Tooth is back!

Sony ended its E3 2010 press conference by unveiling Twisted Metal for PlayStation 3. The long-standing car combat series makes its return to consoles. Famed series director David Jaffe took the stage to show off the game, detailing numerous multiplayer features.

The standard multiplayer deathmatch mode includes up to 16 players online, as well as 4-player local split-screen. For the first time, flight is added to the series. In the demonstration, a helicopter is shown flying high above the action destroying players below. Each vehicle also has two special attacks.

Another mode called Twisted Metal Nuke was shown. The mode pits two teams in a race against each other as they try and destroy the other team's giant metallic statue.

No specific release date was provided, but the game will ship in 2011.

One-Eyed Willy can't play them, but at least he's got that gold. Everybody else, put on your glasses!

At E3 2010, Sony Computer Entertainment revealed a short list of videogames for PlayStation 3 that will be compatible with 3D television sets. These types of HDTVs aren't very prevalent yet, but with James Cameron's Avatar expected to be a "killer app" for the format in the home video market driving sales this holiday season, Sony is betting that its line-up of PlayStation 3 games will be equally as killer and establish the system as the market leader in 3D home gaming.

As with PlayStation Move support, some of the announced games are already released, and will be updated with a patch in a future release. No game has been announced as being planned for released as a separate "3D Edition" version of the game.

The following games are planned offer stereoscopic 3D gameplay in their PlayStation 3 versions:

== MLB 10 The Show
== MotorStorm: Apocalypse
== Killzone 3
== The Sly Collection
== Gran Turismo 5
== Crysis 2
== Mortal Kombat
== Shaun White Skateboarding
== Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
== Tron Evolution the Video Game
== NBA 2K11

Jun 14, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 22


In this interview with Daniel Sussman, a Project Director for Harmonix, tells us about the addition of the keyboard and the "pro" mode to Rock Band 3.

Jun 14, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 21


Jamie Jackson, the Creative Director of Freestyle Games, tells us about whats new in DJ Hero 2!

Steamworks connectivity to be supported on the PS3 version.

One of the biggest surprises of the Sony E3 Media Briefing came when Gabe Newell walked onto stage and announced that Portal 2 will be available for PlayStation 3. "I've been very outspoken about my thoughts on the current generation," Newell deadpanned. "Kevin Butler was introduced to me backstage as the VP of sharpening things."

Portal 2 will now ship in 2011 and the PS3 version will support Steamworks in several ways, including game updates, community features, and connecting players to the Steam Cloud.

A trailer for the game was then shown, in which a dilapidated science center in the jungle began reconstructing itself by some invisible force. As the trailer ended, GLaDOS teased the audience. "I think we can put our difference behind us—for science, you monster."

Play as the Locust. Even as a Ticker. Eff yeah!

Gears of War 3 has a very exciting new online mode, revealed for the first time at E3 2010. Building on the success of Horde mode, Beast mode is an arena-style battle where you try and kill off waves of enemies. The catch? You play as the Locust, killing COGs. Epic is going all out with this--it's not just you playing as wretches. You're going to be playing as a lot of different Locust, from Tickers to Cantus Priest's to Berserkers. It's going to be insane.

Beast Mode offers the mirror side of Horde mode. You and up to three friends play as Locusts, wiping out the entrenched Gears on the various multiplayer maps. The map layout can greatly change your strategy, since the Gears will have a strong advantage if they start with the high ground or, say, a bunker to take sniper shots.

Unlike Horde mode, you have more than one life. After all, playing as a Ticker, your goal is to get close to a Gear and explode. Wouldn't be very fun if that was the end of the round for you. Killing COGs earns you tokens, which can be spent to respawn into different characters. This rewards you for your successes in a match, but avoids punishing you for dying at the hands of a Gear. After all, that's what Locusts do, right?

When you pick up a copy of Gears of War 3 in April 2011, you won't be playing as a Berserker in Beast mode right off the bat. The different playable locusts are earned through a leveling up system. Epic Games promises that this won't be too prohibitive. You'll be able to unlock the Locusts you want quickly enough, but you'll appreciate the Berserker a touch more if you've earned it with superior Beast mode play.

The different Locusts are essentially like multiplayer classes. The Berserkers are your brute class, the Cantus are your healer class, etc. Playing as the different Locust looks like an absolutely blast.

The Ticker is kind of like a little bumper car, steering around the environment, bumping into walls and such in search of a some Gear. And when the Ticker finds victims? Hit the B button to explode. The Cantus is the healer and can even raise the dead. Of course, he also is a fine long-ranged combatant, so don't think of him as some kind of wuss who hangs in the back of the battlefield looking for Locust to heal. The Berserker is a hulk. She has myopic vision, meaning you'll see a little bit less of the field. She's a tank, basically, slowly turning and then plowing forward. She has a charge move that is devastating as well as a powerful ground slam. I saw a Berserker crush a Gear in an exo-suit. It's something else.

We'll have a chance to dive full on into Beast mode later this week. From the looks of it, this will be even better than Horde mode.

Necromorphs don't place nicely.

At least part of Dead Space 2 takes place on The Sprawl, a city located on a moon off Saturn. Despite the seemingly gloomy ending of the original Dead Space, the sequel puts you once again in the high-tech suit of engineer and up-and-coming badass Isaac Clarke. It's unclear what Isaac is doing in the Sprawl, but things in the city have gone to hell and there are necromorphs everywhere. Worse news for Isaac: developer Visceral Games is upping the gruesome kills. Not just for how you dismember necromorphs, but in how they dismember Isaac.

One of the new enemies, the Puker, spits up a sickly fluid, has spindly arms and little desire to sign a peace accord. Use stasis (a power Isaac can deploy to slow time) so you can then pick off the Puker's limbs one carefully placed shot at a time. Just don't let it get too close or it will try and take a bite out of your arm. When it does, you'll be prompted to mash a button to escape -- by ripping the thing's head off.

You can use the javelin gun to nail enemies to the wall or the gravity gun to feel like you're Gordon Freeman. No word yet on whether or not you can chuck a toilet into a necromorph's head. The gravity gun also factors into puzzles which are back in Dead Space 2. You'll use the grav gun to pull down pieces of a high-tech contraption, disconnecting a power source to turn of zero gravity.

Zero gravity, by the way, has evolved. In the first Dead Space, you leaped from wall to wall, but now you can free float in zero gravity, which adds some interesting combat elements. You'll truly be fighting from every angle in these moments, which should make for some harrowing battles.

Along with the Puker, we got to eyeball a new boss battle. A giant necromorph, the size of a small room, drops from the ceiling, and knocks Isaac to the ground. The fight is intense, as Isaac tries to scramble to his feet, but is pinned down. You'll need to dodge pincher strikes as the creature drags you closer. Your goal is to shoot out the luminescent parts of the pincher, but maybe it's more fun to fail. The death from this boss is beautifully brutal.

Take too long to free yourself and the giant necromorph knocks off Isaac's helmet. We rarely saw Isaac's face in the first Dead Space, but we'll see a lot more of him in the sequel. Like when he is about to have a pincher driven through his open mouth, slicing through the back of his head and killing him instantly. It's one hell of a death scene.

Dead Space 2 looks a whole lot like the original, but with more dismemberments, more blood, and cooler deaths for our hero. Why does 2011 have to be so far away?

Sly Cooper Collection also coming.

Sony's greatest mascots have come together in one new game.

During this afternoon's E3 2010 press conference, the company unveiled Heroes on the Move, a new title that includes appearances by Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper and Bentley.

A quick gameplay trailer was shown. The footage seemed to indicate the game will play similarly to its PlayStation 2 counterparts. Release details are coming soon. The game is being developed by Nihilistic, who previously worked on Conan and the canceled StarCraft: Ghost.

Sony also briefly mentioned The Sly Collection. While no details were revealed, it's believed this is a Blu-ray disc collection of the three PlayStation 2 titles.

Motion controlled peripheral hitting North America in September.

At Sony's E3 Media Briefing, Peter Dille revealed the worldwide launch dates and pricing for the company's new motion control peripheral. Move will hit Europe on September 15, North America on September 19, and Japan on October 21.

The Move controller will be available for $49.99, and the Navigation controller will retail for $29.99. If you don't already have a PlayStation Eye, a bundle will be offered that includes one Move controller, an Eye, and a copy of Sports Champion. The bundle will retail for $99.99.

A console bundle will also be available for $399.99. This will include a 250GB PS3 Slim, Sports Champion, a Move controller, and a PlayStation Eye.

Dille announced that there will be between 15-20 games available at launch and more than 40 out by the Holiday season. Some of the highlighted Move games listed were Ruse, NBA 2K11, EyePet, Killzone 3, and more. Several legacy games will also support Move through downloadable patches, including Heavy Rain and Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition.

Retro Studios working on successor to Donkey Kong Country

Nintendo announced this morning that developers Retro Studios are working on Donkey Kong Country Returns, a successor to the top-selling Donkey Kong Country franchise. Nintendo didn't specify a release date for the title, but said the game would release "this Fall." Donkey Kong Country Returns is a sidescrolling platformer with plenty of barrel-cannons and bananas to collect.

Can the best Pac-Man game get even better?

Today Namco Bandai announced the successor to one of our absolute favorite Xbox Live Arcade games, Pac-Man Championship Edition. This deluxe edition adds a "DX" to the title and more mazes to the game.

High score chasers can expect to find over 100 mazes that change shape while you play and new modes. Mission Mode requires you to complete specific objectives while Ghost Mode has you competing to chomp the most ghosts.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX will be available this fall.

Take a look at some of the games you can stream online on June 17.

After months of beta testing, OnLive, the online streaming game platform, will be available to the public this week on June 17. To commemorate the launch, OnLive is teaming up with AT&T to offer players a full free year of the service, waiving monthly subscription fees for anyone who signs up today , June 15, at OnLive.com.

The company has also announced the games that players will be able to play immediately at launch, which include:

Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Square-Enix)
Borderlands (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts)
Just Cause 2 (Square-Enix)
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts)
NBA 2K10 (Take Two Interactive Entertainment)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Ubisoft)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (Ubisoft)


In addition, OnLive will be offering a larger array of titles, including some forthcoming games, such as:
Aliens vs. Predator (SEGA)
Alpha Protocol (SEGA)
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
Darksiders (THQ)
Deus Ex 3 (Square-Enix)
DRIVER San Francisco (Ubisoft)
F.E.A.R. 3 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Homefront (THQ)
Kain & Lynch 2: Dog Days (Square-Enix)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
MLB 2K10 (2K Sports)
Red Faction: Armageddon (THQ)
Shaun White Skateboarding (Ubisoft)

Nintendo unveils its newest Zelda title at E3.

Nintendo started off its E3 2010 press conference with a bang.

The company unveiled The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword for the Wii. The game will utilize the Wii Motion+ add on, allowing 1:1 motion tracking for sword swinging. Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto was on stage demoing the game.

Item selection and slingshot controls have been streamlined. To use your bow, players will have to aim the Wiimote at the screen and pull back the nunchuk. New items were also shown, a Spying Beetle, allowing you to see ahead and to pick up bombs, and a whip.

The game will be shown on the show floor this week.

The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword will be out in 2011.

Miis get in on the party this holiday.

At their E3 press conference this morning, Nintendo announced Wii Party, an apparent successor to the Mario Party series of titles. Designed for family audiences, Wii Party features full Mii support in over 70 mini games, including Board Game Island and Balance Boat. Nintendo also demonstrated a game where players put their controllers on a table and try to pick their Wii-mote up first. Nintendo has stated Wii Party will release this holiday.

Join the movement this fall.

Nintendo's press conference might be off to a rocky start this year at E3 (thanks to some technical difficulties during the Zelda demonstration), but that doesn't mean the party has to stop. Just Dance 2 was just announced at Nintendo's press conference in trailer form. The video featured colored silhouette of plenty of people dancing, and a number of shots of crowded family rooms and girls in jump suits doing choreography. Sounds about right for a new dance game...

Just Dance 2 will feature 40 tracks, "the hottest dance moves," the capability to dance together in a duet, dance crew face offs and a mysterious mode called "Just Sweat mode." Just Dance 2 will support 8 player multiplayer sessions.

You can find this game on store shelves this fall.

New handheld shown at Nintendo's E3 2010 press conference.

Nintendo confirmed the name of its 3D handheld system as the 3DS at its E3 2010 press briefing.

Downloadable titles will be available at launch, and no glasses will be required to see the 3D effects. Shown off at the conference, the new handheld has a 3.5 inch widescreen display for its top screen with a smaller bottom touch screen. Nintendo says the unit will have improved graphical capabilities. It will also have an analog control input in addition to a D-pad and four face buttons.

The unit will feature a slide pad, a gyrosensor, and motion sensor on the handheld. It's compatible with Nintendo DSi games. The 3DS has two camera lenses on the outside so you can also take photos with the 3DS and view them in 3D. The 3D effects are controlled by a slider on the unit, so in that sense they're optional.

Nintendo also mentioned the 3DS will be able to display 3D Hollywood movies, from Disney, Warner Bros., and Dreamworks.

The hardware in the 3DS supports wireless communication regardless of what software is being played, and can access the web through Wi-Fi access points.

We take a look at Activision's big Wii first-person shooter and walk away very impressed.

Console first-person shooters have come and gone, but the original GoldenEye is still considered one of the most influential FPS designs even a decade and a half after its system debut. The times and standards for the genre have changed and evolved over the last fifteen years, so a straight revival of the original game might feel a bit dated – Activision holds the rights to the James Bond videogame franchise and has been hard at work bringing the familiar brand back for a more contemporary action experience for Wii and DS gamers. I had an opportunity to tinker with the Wii build of the game at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Now, you might feel a little robbed that Daniel Craig is taking over for Pierce Brosnan, and the game's scenario has been almost completely rewritten. According to Activision, GoldenEye 007 is a reimagining of the GoldenEye story, just as Casino Royale shook things up with a much more gritty version of the James Bond character. GoldenEye still retains the basics of GoldenEye's story, but retells it in a way that makes sense with Daniel Craig's interpretation of James Bond.

The Wii game has been developed by Eurocom, fresh after its work on Dead Space Extraction for Electronic Arts and Visceral Games. GoldenEye 007 retains the polished scripted storytelling of Extraction with extremely well acted and animated in-game cutscenes. I was able to experience the single player campaign where the game opens up with Bond meeting up with 006 to infiltrate a Soviet base.

Dead Space Extractions was an on-rails experience, but GoldenEye 007 is a full-fledged first-person shooter where players can go anywhere in the level map. Players can climb up guard towers and hit the high ground or take cover behind structures. Environments are fully destructible, a way to keep the player moving: enemies will whittle protective cover down until it's useless. The missions will have multiple paths that balance covert and stealth with all-out firefights -- if you alert an enemy to your location, you have time to take them down before they alert their pals and make things even more difficult.

It's a contemporary FPS design: no health pick-ups. Instead, you take cover to get your health to regenerate. You'll be able to vault over ledges and banisters, and take down enemies with up-close melee attacks.

The playable version at E3 will focus on the multiplayer, and GoldenEye 007 will have a ton of different options – deathmatch and team deathmatch will be in here, as will the Golden Gun mode where players scramble for the one-shot kill weapon. The version at the show is using four player split screen where each player chooses a classic character including Odd Job and Jaws. While each character can toss grenades, good ol' Odd Job can flick his hat at opponents.

Multiplayer will be enhanced with a full-featured online mode, complete with a full-fledged experience point system;
players will be rewarded with XP for specific tasks in online matches that will offer achievements and unlockables.

The final game will feature an incredible amount of customizable control options. Not only can you play with the standard Wii pointer and nunchuk combination and tweak the sensitivity, you can also plug in a Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro and play via the dual-analog way. I'm partial to the Wii remote for FPS, but the Classic Controller worked pretty well too.



GoldenEye 007 looks pretty darn excellent, with a solid and smooth framerate and some slick environment effects. The game has full voice acting, as Activision has recruited the assistance of Daniel Craig and Judi Dench to provide voice over for this original script.

While the game is a completely original take on GoldenEye, there are a few nods to the classic Nintendo 64 game. The game starts in a third person camera but swoops in behind Bond just before players take control. The game trailer shows the dive off the dam and a drop-down into a bathroom. But the "Klobb" gun (presumably named after the N64 game's producer Ken Lobb) has been renamed the "klebb", but the official line is that the gun is named after a James Bond villain – and wouldn't you know it, Wikipedia comes through.

GoldenEye 007 still has a ways to go before its November 2010 release, but even now in its early E3 debut the game's looking hot. We'll have more on the game in the coming months, as it's easily one of the more promising third party Wii games at the show.

Will fully support PS Move at launch.

At Sony's E3 Media Briefing, Guerilla Games today announced Killzone 3 will arrive in February 2011. The anticipated shooter will be playable in 3D and will feature full PS Move support at launch.

Expect more details on Killzone 3 from the show floor shortly.

Where did we get all these wonderful toys?

The New Vegas Strip in the upcoming follow-up to Fallout 3 is a lot like the real Vegas--full of false hope and desperate people. For a world decimated by a nuclear war, New Vegas is about as glitzy as it can get. And that ain't very glitzy. The four major casinos on the Strip offer a quiet oasis from the desolation outside and a brief respite from the war brewing in the expansive desert beyond.

There's a little something for everyone on the Strip. You can see a comic insult show or catch a dance revue, play some casino games (even unique games custom-made for New Vegas), or chat up one of the hookers with a great personality roaming outside. There's The Tops, the Ultra Lux, the Lucky 38, and everyone's favorite sex casino, Gomorrah. Spend big in a casino and you'll get a room comped for being a high roller. But win too much and the pit boss will think you're a cheat and throw you out.

Of course, it's not all fun and games. There are plenty of folks to talk to on the Strip, a number of missions to acquire, which all seem to fall in line with what was experienced in Fallout 3. Rather than detail every conversation or go step-by-step through the various missions I played once I was out in the Vegas desert, I want to tell you about the awesome stuff I saw in my 20-minute jaunt through Obsidian's upcoming RPG. If you want more details on the story and some of the gameplay tweaks, check out our initial Fallout: New Vegas preview.

Now, onto the awesome.

Melee combat in Fallout 3 was decent, but pretty basic. Pick up a bat, swing and hope to connect. Fun for a bit, but not very satisfying. In comes one of my favorite new additions to Fallout--special melee attacks.

Every melee weapon comes with at least one special attack, which adds no strategy to the combat, but likely hours more fun to the mix. Would you kindly strike my face with a golf club? How about selecting the "Fore" option in the VATS combat system for added kick. This move can knock enemies to the ground, where you can then follow up with some serious brutality to their kidneys. Put on the spiked gauntlets and you can deliver an uppercut or a low blow. Yes, that's right, a low blow with spike gauntlets--yowch!

Melee combat never looked that hot in Fallout 3 unless you used the unappealing third-person view. Fortunately, Obsidian has fixed the camera so that playing in third-person isn't just possible, it's preferable. The camera is now tight on the hip of the character instead of showing their poorly animated legs. This is a more traditional camera for a third-person action game and it makes a big difference in terms of playability. Obsidian is throwing in tons of wild and crazy looks and outfits that you will want to see in the third-person view.

One of my favorite new weapons is the throwing spear. This rare ranged weapon factors in your strength score, so it's actually a perfect long-range tool for someone who is normally a brawler. Target an enemy's head in VATS and give the spear a toss. With enough strength (and a bit of luck) you can decapitate an enemy and pin their head to a nearby wall. I tried pinning a rabid dog's tail with a spear, but lady luck wasn't with me on this one.

Another fun weapon is the incendiary grenade. These are like normal grenades but set your enemy ablaze. The fun thing is that they can often knock enemies into the air. So with a fortunate throw, you can blast an enemy up ten or even fifteen feet in a trail of flames. And the best part? You can juggle them in the air with a second grenade explosion. If you can get a couple of grenades to juggle an enemy over the edge of a hillside, you may just have time to switch to your spear and take off their flaming head mid-air.

Told you, this was all about the awesome stuff in Fallout: New Vegas.

Obsidian has the benefit of being handed a game engine and game world already crafted by Bethesda. So they can devote some of development time to making all of it a little bit cooler than before. Ultimately, New Vegas feels almost identical to Fallout 3, but in a new location, with new wacky characters in the mix, and a ton of fun new weapons.

Works for me.

Jun 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 15


Mircrosoft's competition for Wii sports.

Jun 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 16


Demo of the first cart racer for Kinect.

Jun 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 17


Unveiling and demo for controller-less driving in Forza Motorsport 3.

Jun 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 18


Peter Molyneux introduces and presents a trailer for Fable 3.

Jun 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 6


Microsoft discusses the entertainment possibilities for the sports enthusiast.

Jun 13, 2010 — Season 1 Ep. 8


Full coverage of the Microsoft E3 conference. Microsoft speaks candidly about the interactive controller-less entertainment bundle Kinect.

After some quality alone time with Sony's wand, we're onboard with the new controller.

A few months ago at the Game Developer's Conference, Sony showcased the PlayStation Move, a motion controller that offers one-to-one control in videogames. You hold the PlayStation Move, the PlayStation Eye sees it, and you control the game through your actions. The GDC trailers showcased LittleBigPlanet, a fist fighting game and more to rev up the crowd, but the demos themselves were met with mixed reactions. They were early, some of the animations weren't there, and so on.

For some, PlayStation Move became a "wait and see" thing.

Well, IGN editors Ryan Clements and Greg Miller have been waiting, and they just finished a nearly two-hour, private PlayStation Move demo. What they saw put the PlayStation Move on their hot lists, and they want to tell you why they're finally excited for Sony's next big thing.

Greg Miller: So, Ryan, I was caught off guard tonight. I never hated the PlayStation Move, but after this evening's event, I'm actually really excited about it -- about SOCOM 4 feeling great with the Move, about Start the Party being fun, and about where the tech could go. Am I crazy? What did you think?

Ryan Clements: Well, you're absolutely crazy, but I'm going to have to agree with you here. When I first tried the PlayStation Move tech out at the Game Developers Conference in March, I was totally unimpressed. The software just wasn't there. But now, the hardware is accurate and some of the games are actually a blast. Start the Party was surprisingly fun, and I actually loved Sports Champions. It's crazy accurate.

Greg Miller: See, that's what I dug about SOCOM 4 -- the accuracy. When I was pressed up against a car for cover, popped out, and was able to use the Move to target a bad guy's foot behind a car, I was sold. It was quick and accurate. I don't know if I could've lined that shot up as easily with a DualShock.

Ryan Clements: Do you think this will appeal to people that usually despise motion controls? Would the SOCOM veterans even give it a try or will it only be something that a few people pick up?

Greg Miller: It's tough to say. The Move is something new. It's going to take time to learn it -- to make it feel natural. That's going to turn people off. What got me behind it on the SOCOM front is that you could play it while being sprawled out on the couch. The "motion" part of it is just for aiming; it's just to make it feel like the gun is your hand. There's no pumping your arms to run and no waggling to throw a grenade. It's there to make shooting easy. I like that.

What about Sport Champions? You hate sports, why did that one stand out to you?



Ryan Clements: Good question. I don't care for most traditional, everyday sports like football and hockey, but Sports Champions has a couple things that interest me, like archery and the gladiator duel. Although these were the only two events I played, they were both fantastic. They're perfect examples of how two different Move wands can be used in tandem to enhance the experience. When fighting someone in gladiator duel, your one arm holds a shield and the other holds a club. The shield controls were just incredible. You really had to move your arm realistically to block a strike. That's rad. Archery was even better because, as you said, it's accurate. Drawing your arm back and moving your upper body to line up a shot felt so natural it was almost eerie. Sure, you need to stand up for both of those, but it was worth it.

I think that people just need to use the PlayStation Move in order to "get it," right? I never would have thought I could like it that much until it was in my hands.

Greg Miller: I think playing with it is a big thing, but I think that it helps that the demos were farther along. I mean, how was Sports Champions running for you? I know at GDC some folks complained that there was a bit of lag in the moves.

Ryan Clements: No lag that I could notice, but I only played the two events. I mean, the character animations aren't going to win any awards, but when it comes to the raw gameplay, that's where I felt satisfied.

I totally forgot to mention this, but I got super-excited when I saw you doing the tech demo portion of the event, where you could create shapes in real 3D by moving your hands around on screen. That was some Minority Report level stuff, man. It blew my mind. Imagine controlling a super-sleek interface of some futuristic war machine like that.

I think I just blew up my brain.

Greg Miller: Exactly. Where PlayStation Move is going to win fans is when the players see how cool the true one-for-one control is. Although it's come quite a way since GDC, The Fight: Lights Out still isn't as awesome as it could be. If it had the true one-for-one that Sports Champions has, it would be amazing, but the slower pace kind of sucks some life from it.

Swatting bugs in Start the Party and becoming a robot in the tech demo, that's the stuff that is awesome. Making that robot skeleton that did exactly what I did and dropping him into a scene was amazing. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves already has that green screen function where you get to make your own scenes, but imagine a PlayStation Move-enabled version of that where you could move Drake as a puppet and make your own movies. Imagine stretching out your own track in ModNation Racers or whittling your own weapon in Dynasty Warriors.

Ryan Clements: Oh man, dropping the Dynasty Warriors legacy on this? Epic. But I think you've hit on one of the extremely important topics: creation tools, and gameplay mechanics that literally evolve when you introduce an alternative control scheme.

For example, we all know that entering a PSN code with the regular DualShock is a pain in the ass, but when you add a keypad onto the controller, things suddenly become a whole lot easier. No one will argue that the D-pad and X button are better for entering text than a real keyboard.

In that same sense, the PlayStation Move could actually provide better control for certain gameplay mechanics. For example, drawing with the wand is naturally easier to do then drawing with a D-pad or analog stick. There are bound to be situations where the PlayStation Move can give us better controls, not just different controls, which is what a lot of Wii games attempt to do. Throwing a grenade by wagging a Wii Remote is not as easy as pressing a single button. It requires more energy. It's all about finding the right time and place for motion. That's when things could get brilliant.

Greg Miller: For the love of Kevin Butler, I thought you were about to pitch the Move as a keyboard option. Whew.

Anyway, you get it, and I think Sony does, too. At GDC, Sony showed a lot of brief glimpses at early games, and they looked -- at the time -- a lot like Wii games. That scared a lot of people as some Wii games seem to tack on motion because they can. If Sony's going to integrate Move support in ways that make sense, make games better and still allow me to be a fat-ass gamer, I'm all for it.

However, here's the question, Clements: when we left the demo, we were talking about how much we liked Start the Party, but then you mentioned you didn't know how much you'd play it. Is that a problem?

Ryan Clements: That's only a possible issue for that particular game. That has nothing to do with the Move support. The reason I wouldn't be compelled to go back is because there wasn't a truly rewarding system built in. The SOCOM 4 controls were good, but the game is good on its own because there's a rewarding shooter with the potential for multiple playthroughs built into it.

You need to have a fun, engaging idea that uses (smart) motion controls.


Greg Miller: True. I love Buzz, but I don't play Buzz every day. If Sony continues to give us good games that use the Move, I don't mind having one game I only play when I have people over. I just don't want a shelf filled with super-casual games I rarely play.

So, wrapping this up, it's OK to be excited about PlayStation Move? Are we going to get burned here?



Ryan Clements: There's always that chance when you play with fire, but I think that this has a lot of potential. And there will always be brilliant minds that come up with something that taps into that potential. We just need to wait for it.

Greg Miller: "Play with fire?" Are you working on a movie trailer voiceover?

Ryan Clements: "When you take everything away from a man, he'll take everything away from you."

Greg Miller: Ah, a joke for the 12 Podcast Beyond listeners reading. Anyway, I'm excited. Today was the day that Sony really gave me some proof that it gets what it's doing with the PlayStation Move. I'm not going to be forced to jog in place when I play Uncharted 3; when Move is used, it's going to make sense.

At least as of right now. Hopefully, Sony doesn't lose sight of that as we Move forward. Ha. Ha.

Ryan Clements: Ha. Ha. *Collapses*

Eric Chahi makes his return.

Ubisoft revealed a new downloadable title tentatively being called Project Dust.

The game is being developed by Eric Chahi, the creator behind the adventure title Out of this World, which was first released in 1991.

No gameplay details were revealed for Project Dust, but the trailer shown at the conference hints it may be a strategy game similar to the classic game series Populous.

The game is set for release in Spring 2011.

Ubisoft teams with the late great musician for the dance game you've been waiting for.

In the final E3 press conference of the day, Ubisoft announced that it would publish a Michael Jackson dancing game at the end of the year. A slew of dancers rushed the stage to strut their stuff to "Beat It," but no gameplay was shown, no platforms were announced, and no other details were given.

So, look for a Michael Jackson dancing game at the end of the year.

That is all.

How to transfer all of your files onto the new redesigned hard drive.

Today Microsoft unveiled an all new, slimmer Xbox 360, complete with built-in Wi-Fi support and 250GBs of storage space. The new form factor prompted Microsoft to make some functional changes to the Xbox 360 hardware, most notably the removable hard drive system, which is now smaller and recessed into the base of the console. What does this mean for you? Well, if you were hoping to upgrade to the new model, you won't be able to just pop in your old hard drive and have immediate access to your profile. Instead, you'll have to migrate your data, but how?

USB Storage
The most recent update to the Xbox 360 firmware allows users to store and transfer game data and profiles on a USB storage device. The update supports just about any USB storage device, which means that you can use any flash drive you have laying around. In order to copy data from your old Xbox 360 to the new one, however, you'll have to format the USB device first, so make sure you backup whatever data the USB storage device might already have on it.



There are, however, some limitations to transferring data via USB; Microsoft only allows users to allocate 16GBs of any device to Xbox 360 data, so if you have a lot of data to transfer, you could run into some trouble, and you have to authenticate purchases before they can be played on a different console.


Hard Drive Data Migration Transfer Kit
Shortly after announcing the new Xbox 360, Microsoft confirmed that users will be able to use the Xbox 360 Hard Drive Data Migration Transfer Kit to copy an entire hard drive's worth of data to a new external hard drive. All existing transfer cables are compatible with the new hard drive design, so if you already have one, there's no need to purchase a new one. Those without, however, can pick one up at Microsoft's online store now for $14.99.




Online License Migration
As we mentioned above, if you don't perform a complete hard drive migration using the Hard Drive Data Migration Transfer Kit, you have to use Microsoft's online license migration website to authorize games and other DLC to be used on other consoles. To better assist users with migration on the new console, Microsoft has told us that the online license migration system will be revamped. How extensively you will be able to use the online license migration to transfer data to the new console is still unknown, but we expect to hear more in the coming weeks.

Will there be a bigger push for 3D in the future?

With Sony taking an aggressive stance on 3D gaming this year with new bundled offers on their 3D-enabled displays and firmware updates to the PlayStation 3, many are wondering what Microsoft's plans are for 3D on the Xbox 360. Monday's press conference made no mention of integrated support for 3D, and instead placed a firm focus on Kinect, their new camera-based control solution. But just because other technologies took the spotlight, it doesn't mean Microsoft isn't thinking about 3D.

While the Xbox 360 is capable of supporting full stereoscopic 3D games like Avatar: The Game, and forthcoming titles like Crysis 2, Microsoft is leaving the choice to developers rather than implementing 3D as a standard feature of the system with 2D-to-3D conversion, 3D features of the Xbox Live dashboard, and movies. The reasoning? Slow adoption rates.

"It's projected that less than one half of one percent of all TVs in the U.S. this year will be 3DTVs," the company said in a release today. "And 3DTVs will make up only 5% of the TV installed base three years from now."

Although Microsoft is leaving the decision up to developers, and subsequently consumers, to adopt 3D tech, they are prepared to act quickly to embrace the technology more widely should there be larger demand.

"We closely and constantly evaluate consumer trends," they said. "If there is demand, we've demonstrated in the past that we are able to quickly dedicate resources to respond to consumer interest."

The team on delivering over 100 unlockables (including Big Head Mode out of the gate), the possibility of online play, the achievement system and how NBA Jam's like Punch-Out!!

The more we see of NBA Jam the more we're convinced this reinvention of the game that made $1 billion dollars in arcades in 1993 is in safe hands. Not only has the team at EA hooked up with the series' original creator Mark Turmell to ensure they get the core experience right, but there's a whole lot more going on with this game than you might expect, with a wealth of content that encompasses unlockable players, cheats and two full campaign modes: Classic, where you play all 30 NBA teams (with three current stars per team) as well as taking on 2 on 2 boss battles against NBA legends such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird; and the Remix Tour, which is double the length and promises to really shake the formula up – think boss battles against more than just legendary players, drastic changes to rules and modes, that kind of thing.

The team has made a few smart changes to the gameplay too, such as incorporating a counter to the shove move, which the team felt was too powerful, especially for a game that's all about driving to the hoop. Defenders can still shove, of course, and it's as satisfying as ever, but now the player with the ball can roll away from the defender, so it becomes a game of cat and mouse, and timing. The team also brought back a few of the more subtle features of the original (with a little help from Mark Turmell), such as the way the triangles that indicate when players are off-screen change size - the smaller they are the further the player is off-screen, and the fact that players run faster when off-screen, to help them get back into the action more quickly.

The presentation is looking fantastic too, whether it's a deliberately slick aspect, such as the fantastic player animations (particularly during and after dunks – no surprises there) or the reflections off the stadium TVs on the court surfaces, or it's the deliberately vintage elements, such as the crowd's low frame animations, or the 2D heads on characters. In fact, speaking of the latter, the team clued us in on the template for creating player faces using 2D images. Basically, each player/celebrity/whatever that's going in the game has a range of images that can be displayed atop their 3D body - two dunk faces (think a big cheesy grin or mega-gurn), a happy face, a negative face and plain front/back/side shots. There are then four blurred face shots that are used as transitions between the crisp photos. It all adds up to a comical, stylised and appealing look for the players.




We caught up with the game's creative director, Trey Smith, for a chat about the title. Here are some of the most interesting nuggets of information that came out of it…

The Team Love the Old School Cheats Too!

Trey Smith: "If you've thought about it, chances are we have too and it's going in. It's such a big part of the experience… I hope you'll see that a lot of care has been put into keeping the old school [stuff] in this game, and we all know how important those cheats were… there's a lot of unlockable content in this game...

"I'll tell you right now, Big Head Mode is available as soon as you play through the tutorial. So right there, from then on out, if you want to flip that switch and go Big Head Mode, you can go crazy, right from the get-go. Being able to play with all those funky things, it being an arcade title and Jam being known for the quirkiness, we have a little bit of creative license to play around. Yes, it's a basketball game, but above all it's a game for gamers, and gamers like messing around with stuff… I think we have over 100 unlockable characters, teams, Privileges and other bonuses along the way."

Jam Challenges = Achievements!

Trey Smith: "We have a really cool – it's kind of an achievement system - we're calling 'Jam Challenges' and that's how you unlock things, so if one of the Jam Challenges is 'score 100 points in a game' and you complete that challenge you get a special presentation element and then that unlocks something, so every Jam Challenge is attached to an unlockable. We'll have some other unlockables too."

Jam Has Bigger Campaigns Than Most!

Trey Smith: "For the Classic campaign, right now, based on the difficulty level – we have four in the game – you're looking at anywhere between 10 and 20 hours gameplay, and then in Remix Tour, it took one of our testers 35 hours to play through. And it's not like it's the same game over and over again – we're changing it up constantly… that element of surprise is something that I think the original Jam had, where you're just playing it and all of a sudden something magnificent happens - that's what we're trying to do: kind of keep you on your toes, trying to keep you going 'just one more game because I want to see what's next'. And we're dedicated to delivering - every step of the way - to give you a juicy nugget of Jam goodness."

The Boss Battles Are Going to be Huge!

Trey Smith: "They're developing into something that's bigger than we ever thought [they would be]. I can't go into specifics but I think we're really going to surprise people with some big moments. It does hark back to the old classic videogame boss battle where you play 'em and they just seem like titans and unbeatable, and then the more you start to recognise patterns, you find that weakness - that Achilles heel - and you exploit that weakness to beat them and there's that 'aha! That's how I do it!' [moment].

"I think the closest thing, in a sports game, that comes close to what we're playing with is really a Punch-Out!! kind of scenario, and in an arcade basketball game that's something we're pretty excited about. It was something we threw out early on as an idea, and the more and more it's developed and the more and more depth that we've got in the experience, I think it's going to be a really compelling thing."

The Remix Tour Will Shift Things Up!

Trey Smith: "There are a bunch of different ways to play basketball, and sometimes it's not a 2 on 2 experience – there are other ways to play, and that's kind of where we're going with it. We might flip the camera around and give you a different view other than that classic 2 on 2 cam. You might play some half-court games. And some things might pop up on the court and change the way things are going on and introduce some new strategies for people to play. Some game modes are going to be catered towards big dunkers, other game modes are going to be built towards maybe an outside shooter or all-round player… we've got one game mode built around what we feel is one of the defining moments of the NBA Jam experience, and we're taking that experience and building an entire way to play around it."

Legal Mumbo Jumbo Won't Stop the Hidden Characters!

Trey Smith: "Back in the day, they didn't have legal departments with 50 people in there, watching that stuff. They could just throw people in games and pray [nothing would come of it]… the landscape has really changed when it comes to licensing and that kind of stuff.

"It's not easy, but this game has been in development for over a year and a half now, and as soon as we knew we were Jam, we started fishing around and we started getting people onboard. These processes take forever. There's somebody that I talked to in the first week, and we're still trying to lock down that deal. That is a big one.

"I think everybody's going to be very satisfied - at the very least - at who we're bringing in, and I think there are going to be a couple of 'oh my gosh, I can't believe they got …' [inclusions]."

We Want Names!

Trey Smith: "We're going to have Magic and Larry Bird, but the one additional thing I can give you: if you're playing with your favourite original team in the original Jam, chances are you're going to be able to play with them in this. So if you had a favourite match-up back in the day? Chances are you're going to be able to play with those guys."

Jam Has Some Solid Tech Behind It!

Trey Smith: "We're running at 60 frames per second on the Wii… and our animation and gameplay system is something that's not used on the Wii very often. It's a tool called ANT – I don't know what it's an acronym for, but it's [used in] Madden, NHL, FIFA, Fight Night – all of our big titles have used it, and [using it] we can important any animations from Live, from NBA Street, from our old Homecourt – we can just plug them into our game and make it work."

2D Heads and Crowds Save Processing Juice!

Trey Smith: "Just being able to chop off a player's head and throw a high resolution texture there saves us a lot. And you know, it's just like in the original Jam – having the crowd and everything in 2D, it's got that depth to it and we've got some bells and whistles so we can spice it up a bit, but that's all processing power that we can put towards gameplay, that we can put towards animations, that we can put towards effects, and again, it's just standing on the shoulders of that original team – those guys were super smart with how they did it."

Series Creator Mark Turmell Still Knows Jam!

Trey Smith: "Mark Turmell didn't just make Jam, he also made Smash TV, NHL Hitz, NFL Blitz - he's probably the true pioneer of arcade sports titles. Just a legend… It's that arcade sports experience – it's pick up and play, anybody can hop in and have a good time, and it's like a human highlight reel: you get to do all the cool stuff right away. You don't have to invest eight hours, or 30 hours into a season campaign or career, so having him come in was amazing… he pushed us really hard, asked us lots of hard questions. When he said the game had to run at 60fps we were like 'are you kidding me? We're going to be left with, like, two stick men on the court,' but our guys are really smart - they stepped up to the challenge, and it absolutely makes a difference. And we didn't really leave any visuals on the way – the game still looks great and it's running at 60 frames.

"He's all about the gameplay experience and that hyper-responsiveness, that twitch experience, so the jump to 60 was the biggest push that he gave us, but [there were also] lots of little things [too]… I mean, not only was he the original designer, he was the original programmer, so he knows everything that's going on under the hood… we've got everything in the game now, it's just massaging it along the way, and he's going to be a key component [in getting it right]."

It's Just on Wii… But It Might Not Always Be!

Trey Smith: "Jam was just the perfect fit [for Wii, but as far as other versions go] it's something that we're just going to have to see… we know what's going on, we read the message boards, we know the comments, of course we want Jam on everything we can get it on. We want as many people to play the game as possible, but right now we're just focused on the Wii, and as far as what the future may bring, it's not up to me, but if it does well, fingers crossed."

Online Play Is Still Possible!

Trey Smith: "We've still got some time left. I'll be honest with you, we're not there yet, and getting it to run as well as we need it to, to be as snappy as we need it to be online, is going to be a monumental feat if we pull it off. I don't want to commit to it because we might not get there. We're not going to put something out there that's half-ass. If we're going to do it we're going to do it right. We're absolutely looking into it."

Fans Have Submitted Suggestions For Commentary Lines Through Facebook!

Trey Smith: "At last count, I think we were at around 1500 [entries], and the competition, it's really tough right now. We're going through, and I think we're trying to pick the 64 best ones, and then we're going to do a vote on Facebook. It's exciting, and it gives back to the fans. You guys helped us get this game greenlit. We had to say 'people want this game! We have to make this game!' and we're trying to think of as many different ways as we can to give back to the fans and bring you guys into it. This is a game for all of us. We're not creating something brand spanking new here, this is something we all know, we all love and we're just happy to be a part of it.


Happy, fellow NBA Jam fans? Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to check out the Facebook page (just search for 'NBA Jam'). In fact, if you're really quick, you may still be able to enter the contest...

Microsoft is cutting out the middle man.

Two years after the Xbox 360 gained the ability to stream Netflix content we're finally getting a much needed update: Netflix search. Beginning this November we won't have to manage our Netflix streaming queue from our computers -- we'll be able to do it right from the Xbox dashboard.

We also know we'll be able to browse our Netflix queue using Kinect, which will arrive November 4.

Bringing stylized gunplay to an arcade-loving audience.

As a guy who loves dancing and clubs, I was immediately intrigued by the upcoming first-person shooter titled Bodycount. From the minds and madness of the developers behind Black, Bodycount is all about having "fun with a gun" while furious beats pound out a rhythm as you take down everything in sight. With bright lights, sexually charged banter and gun-filled safe houses that emulate swanky club bars, Bodycount sounds like a special kind of shooter.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to sit down with Bodycount's Creative Director Stuart Black, who has very specific visions for Bodycount. After a brief presentation, Black let me dive right into Bodycount for myself as I desperately attempted to survive without the ability to switch over to inverted controls (yes, I'm one of those people). Despite having a severe handicap, I still enjoyed my time with Bodycount and I can't wait to see how the game comes along as the team has more time to refine the experience.

Black describes Bodycount as a "glossy techno thriller," which seems like a perfectly accurate description to me. With such diverse inspirations as J.J. Abrams and Lady Gaga, the developers of Bodycount want this shooter to stand out and offer an arcade-style, visceral experience. Players take control of the combat asset Jackson Delgado, a.k.a. John Doe. John will be guided by the sensual and potentially over-flirtatious operative Melanie, codenamed Jane Doe. These two heroes work for the mysterious corporation known as the Network, under the command of a Handler. During John's death-defying assignments, he'll be working towards eliminating the target nemesis, the femme fatale antagonist modeled after Lady Gaga.

In case you couldn't already tell from this description, Bodycount is utterly ridiculous, but in a respectable way. At the game's beginning, John accepts an assignment from the Network and is suddenly knocked unconscious, awaking in mid-skydive over the war-torn streets of Africa. In order to survive, John has to hit the ground running and take out as many targets as possible, all while maintaining the most overtly sexual banter I could possibly imagine with Jane.

The best thing about Bodycount is how the act of shooting and killing is made into an instantly rewarding arcade mechanic. Take down a target and glowing spheres of Intel will spill out of his body. Run over them and you'll pick them up in a flurry of musical notes and glowing light. This is like collecting coins in the Mario games, or grabbing rings when flying through a level as Sonic. It's just fun to gobble up Intel, and luckily these points serve as the in-game currency, which feeds into Bodycount's upgrade system.

The Network safe houses scattered throughout John's zone of operations are the player's home for upgrades and weapon tweaking. Although Black didn't go into too much detail about upgrades, I can assume that Intel is spent on making your awesome weapons even more awesome, and you just can't complain about that.



There are a number of other enticing gameplay tidbits in Bodycount besides the Intel gathering. By squeezing the left trigger (on the 360 controller), John will lean against the closest available cover. This locks him into place, but the left stick can then be used to maneuver him around that cover, like leaning around walls, peering up through windows and any other space that can accommodate a bullet. And if cover isn't your cup of tea (though it should be, if you want to survive), you can run in guns blazing and actually carve your own way through a level, as a good amount of the terrain is destructible. For example, if there's a rundown house that you need access to, don't look for a door -- blow a hole in the wall instead! It's "fun with a gun," as Black said.

My demo of Bodycount ended with one last sultry note from Jane over the radio: "I don't usually kiss on the first date, but that was fun." She then blows a kiss into the mic as John stands amidst the smoldering wreckage of a bullet-battered warzone.

Totally ridiculous.

New title coming this November.

Assassin's Creed II might be a thing of the past, but that doesn't mean Ezio is entirely out of the picture. He's returning in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, a sequel that picks up directly where his previous adventure left off. The game will feature a number of new features, including even more story developments for Desmond along with a multiplayer component, a first for the franchise. For this preview, I'm going to talk about a recent demo of Brotherhood's single-player portion.

After the climactic events of Assassin's Creed II Ezio returns to his Villa, the stronghold players spent the majority of the previous game upgrading and making as fancy as possible, only to be assaulted. As Ezio's lying in bed a cannonball smashes through his ceiling. He runs outside to find buildings on fire and a surging army at the gates as more cannonballs rain down from above. He does something unexpected: gets up, runs outside, and jumps on a horse.

That's unexpected because previously in Assassin's Creed, a horse would rear up and stall at the entrance to a city like it was the edge of a fiery chasm. But in Brotherhood, the main setting of Rome is so large -- three times the size of Florence -- that a faster mode of urban transportation is required. As Ezio thunders through the streets an explosion collapses the side of a building. The stone shattering across the street knocks aside the horse, forcing Ezio to continue along on foot. He jumps at a ladder and loses his grip when a large chunk of stone is shot out from above. When he reaches the top of the ladder and emerges onto the walkway along the top of the Villa's ramparts, he's finally able to get to a perimeter mounted cannon to try and cut into the hostile forces converging on the city gate.

Though I didn't get to play this part, it's basically a turret sequence. Ezio stands behind a cannon and it's your job to aim and fire at masses of troops and siege towers. The sense of scale here is as impressive as the battlefield is enormous, with hundreds of troops moving around as cannon fire arcs overhead and wood splinters at places of impact. When enough damage has been done Ezio steps away from the cannon only to find a siege tower has made it all the way to the wall, unloading soldiers onto the rampart. Ezio approaches and engages in combat.

Ubisoft says players complained that Assassin's Creed's gameplay felt too slow before, so it's been sped up for Brotherhood. Enemies attack faster and tend to be more aggressive, so in theory you'll spend less time standing in one place waiting for an attack so you can counter. Enemies will be a lot more challenging this time too, so expect tougher fights. In order to better prepare you for the challenges ahead, Ubisoft is implementing a major new addition to the single-player game: teammates.

Once Ezio finally makes it to Rome, he'll be able to recruit and train other assassins to help out in the field. These guys can be leveled up and upgraded and come in handy in a few different ways. For example, if a large group of enemies is blocking your way, a rain of arrows can be triggered that'll take them out, as presumably your teammates shoot from off-screen. Teammates can also be called upon to pounce on enemies from above, an Assassin's Creed version of an orbital strike, to pounce down and stab targets. If surrounded, Ezio can call in his teammates to distract any hostiles while smoke is released, letting him slip away unnoticed amidst the confusion.



For personal use, Ezio also gets a useful crossbow that's carried on his back and can swiftly and silently bring down targets from afar. Should his personal arsenal not be enough, his teammates can be upgraded as play progresses through a mission system. As new guild members are added, Ezio can consult a map and send them on open missions. Each will have an associated difficulty level and, should a teammate carry out the mission successfully, they'll be awarded with experience points and boost their skill sets and health. Multiple teammates can be assigned to the same task, but that means they'll have to split the rewards, so there'll be few things to consider when determining how best to grow your stable of assassins. These missions aren't playable, however, so it sounds like the assassins just disappear into the ether and ideally return with good news.

Those who enjoyed the villa upgrade system of Assassin's Creed II may be interested to know that in Brotherhood you'll actually be upgrading the city of Rome itself. You'll buy property and generally bring the Renaissance to an oppressed populace, something you'll see represented visually as the city literally brightens and becomes a happier place as you make progress.

While I didn't get to play, it looks like it could be interesting for Assassin's Creed fans, particularly the ability to call in what essentially amounts to Renaissance-era air strikes. Look for the game on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC on November 16th.

Epic's latest coming early next year.

During Electronic Arts' E3 2010 press conference, Epic Games Design Director Cliff Bleszinski announced the release date for Bulletstorm, the first-person shooter developed by People Can Fly.

The game will be released on February 22, 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.


E3 2010: Killing for Combos in Bulletstorm
Blood spills, limbs fly, points increase.

As soon as I'm a minute into the E3 demo of Bulletstorm, the next shooter from People Can Fly (Painkiller) and Epic Games (Gears of War), I know that this is a game you have to play to really experience. I'd seen the presentation a month ago, which I wrote a preview about, but I couldn't tell from watching it if the crazy Need-for-Speed-meets-first-person-shooter combo system would draw me in for more than a few moments. Having finally tried it out for myself, though, I can already tell that I'm a sick, sick person, easily addicted to finding just one more way to creatively kill my enemies.



My first run in the abandoned, water-logged city of Stygia (the game's setting) took some getting used to. It's not that Bulletstorm has weird controls, or feels clunky in any way, it's that years of other FPS games have taught me to take cover, keep distance between me and my foes, and take them out when an opportunity presents itself.

This is not the Bulletstorm way.

No, in Bulletstorm players make their own opportunities, using their generally abundant (though by no means infinite) health to close the gap with their enemies. Getting close allows the player to utilize their kick and energy leash, two tools that essentially put your target into slow motion. Additionally, players can also do a slide kick to get close in a short amount of time, or, after upgrading, use their leash from a distance to knock whole groups of enemies up into the air.

The point of slowing down your foes is so, like a cat with its prey, you can line them up for the most creative kill possible (called a Skillshot). Bulletstorm rewards players who kill enemies creatively with points that they can spend for upgrades. However, even more gratifying than obtaining the points, is the fun that comes from discovering new Skillshots. While the more obvious Skillshots like headshots or blowing someone up with your weapons won't surprise anyone, People Can Fly has created a world that's just waiting to assist you in maiming someone.

At one point I watched as the EA staff launched enemies upward at just the right moment to throw them into their own helicopter's blades; another time they kicked an enemy into the maw of a carnivorous plant only to trigger an explosive they'd previously tied to them. The points and constant sense of reward you get from seeing the names of the Skillshots you're pulling off drives you to play this game unlike most any other shooter. You're a monster running down peons in all the gruesomest ways.



Gratifying deaths and little numbers popping up on my HUD are enough to get me going, but those of you who require tangible rewards will want to score points off the upgrade kiosks. At these little beacons, players can spend points on upgrades for weapons and equipment that will give them even more ways to creatively kill all who stand before them. Upgrading the energy leash turned it into the Thumper, enabling the player to slam the leash on the ground and throw anyone -- and anything -- up into the air for a span. Weapon upgrades allowed the use of an alternate fire, with the assault rifle doing a super shot of multiple bullets at once, while the previously shown Flail Gun's upgrade allowed it to shoot a heated shot that would cut enemies apart.

The only real shame about the demo for Bulletstorm is how much it leaves me wondering what else is waiting to be shown. How ammo will be obtained isn't yet sorted out (it was infinite in the demo), and they only allowed me to play with the same two guns they showed during the announcement. I've still seen just the one stage, leaving me with only speculation as to what other sorts of crazy environmental hazards they'll give players to use. Still, it's telling that the four of us in the demo room played through what amounted to a five-minute demo over and over, laughing while we passed around the controller to see who could outdo the previous player's best score. If a few minutes of a game can do that, I can't wait to see what a few hours brings.

Strap on your keytar and rock the world.

I went mad for the original Rock Band. I would rush home to turn it on and go deeper and deeper into the career mode, carry my plastic instruments to parties, and spend weekends tackling the endless set list. However, when I bought Rock Band 2 on day one, I found the magic wasn't there. Sure, I played at parties and with friends, but the game was the same old song and dance. My library of songs began to gather virtual dust on my hard drive, and my instruments were shoved into the corner of my apartment.



I have a feeling that's about to change. When I walked into the Rock Band 3 demo and found a band jamming out to "Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News – complete with a keyboard – I became a Rock Band 3 believer.

At this point in the history of music games, I'm assuming you don't need a breakdown on how the basics of Rock Band 3 works. You and some friends pick up your plastic instruments and hit corresponding buttons as they cross an onscreen line. Do all of this well, and you get points and make music. The keyboard – or keytar if you decide to strap it across your chest – works the exact same way. There are a bunch of keys on it, but for basic gameplay, you'll just use the traditional five colored buttons. There's an overdrive button and a touch-enabled slider surface for a whammy bar-like effect.


Rockband 3 Songs (so far).
Dio, "Rainbow in the Dark"
Queen, "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Huey Lewis and the News, "The Power of Love"
Rilo Kiley, "Portions of Foxes"
Ida Maria, "Oh My God"
Smash Mouth, "Walkin' on the Sun"
Jane's Addiction, "Been Caught Stealing"
Spacehog, "In the Meantime
Jimi Hendrix, "Crosstown Traffic"
Stone Temple Pilots, "Plush"
Joan Jett, "I Love Rock and Roll"
Them Crooked Vultures, "Dead End Friends"
Juanes, "Me Enamora"
The Cure, "Just Like Heaven"
Metric, "Combat Baby"
The Doors, "Break On Through"
Night Ranger, "Sister Christian"
The Vines, "Get Free"
Ozzy Osbourne, "Crazy Train"
The White Stripes, "The Hardest Button to Button"
Phoenix, "Lasso"
Whitesnake, "Here I Go Again"


Rock Band 3 is going to pack 83 songs on its disc, but it's also going to allow you to import songs from Rock Band, Rock Band 2, track packs, and Green Day: Rock Band. Plus, all of the downloaded songs you already have are going to work here, too. However, it is important to keyboard and three-part vocal harmony tracks will be limited, at least initially, to the songs included on the disc, and with DLC moving forward. Previous content may be updated in the future, but no official plans have been announced thus far.

Even better news, however, is that Harmonix has redone how all of these tracks can be stored and sorted. You can now sort by the length of songs, what you've previously rated them, and what game they're from. You can even mark tracks so that they don't pop up in random sets and ruin your parties. For the first time, you're going to be able to create set lists, save them and pick'em later. If you want to go that extra mile, you can share the playlists with your friends online and turn it into a battle.



In addition to that change, the game will now designate a band leader who is the one picking songs and so on. This way, when your friends start beating the drums before everyone has finalized their instruments, you won't lose the songs you've already picked and have the whole band kicked back to the main menu. The game still packs the drop-in/drop-out features so that friends and family can pop in whenever they feel like it, and three-part harmony mics are here so that you can have a total of seven players at once.

Even though it's keeping those casual options, Rock Band 3 might be more hardcore than ever – if you want it to be. The revamped career mode has your band trying to rise to the top of the music industry by playing in dives and hoping for a big break, but the game tosses in more than 700 challenges to tackle like mastering the bass and becoming a "Rock Band Headliner."

Microsoft signs multi-year deal with Activision.

As part of its E3 2010 press conference, Microsoft today announced it has signed a multi-year agreement with publisher Activision that will see all all Call of Duty map packs released first on Xbox 360.

The agreement includes all Call of Duty titles through the year 2012.

New motion camera coming this holiday.

Microsoft has confirmed its upcoming motion camera Kinect will be released worldwide this holiday, and will launch in North America on November 4.

There will be 15 launch titles, including Sonic Riders, The Biggest Loser, and a LucasArts developed Star Wars title.

Microsoft did not announce the price for newly named motion camera Kinect at its press conference earlier this morning, but that hasn't stopped retailers from beginning to offer preorders.

GameStop has several preorders available for Kinect. The standalone device is listed at $149.99, a Kinect Arcade Bundle for $299.99, and a Kinect Elite Bundle for $399.99. The arcade and elite bundles have since been pulled from the website.

Several Kinect titles, including Kinectmals, Kinect Joyride, and Dance Central, have also been priced at $59.99 each.

We've asked Microsoft for comment on the listings and we'll update this post when we hear back.

Online death to infidels!

Though EALA is doing the single-player for Medal of Honor, it's DICE (makers of Battlefield: Bad Company 2) handling the multiplayer component. While the expectation may be for DICE to offer up Battlefield's multiplayer with a different coat of paint, that's not the case at all. Medal of Honor's multiplayer certainly has elements of DICE's design heritage, but it's more about ground infantry combat. The battles, 12-on-12 online matches featuring special forces versus insurgents, are intense and brutal. You die quickly thanks to "faster bullets" as DICE describes it, and a lack of health packs. This is war. Good luck surviving.

You begin your online career as a U.S. Army Ranger, but progress up levels, unlocking new items on your way to becoming a Tier 1 Operator. And you definitely want to become Tier 1 -- that's when you unlock a beard. The beard doesn't kill, it just looks bad ass. On the way to unlocking a beard, you'll be opening up new modifications for your weapons. Weapons can support three mods, which can be switched out between rounds. DICE promises hundreds of combinations. Weapons will become one of the biggest variables in Medal of Honor, far more so than in more first-person shooters.

Experience is earned for completing mission objectives and for kills. There are bonuses for certain types of kills, as well as score chains. It's not just about getting a bunch of kills in a match, but in getting quick batches of kills.

Live sporting events and video conferencing revealed.

The Microsoft press conference is coming to a close, but that didn't stop the big publisher from revealing another huge part of the Kinect experience. The first was a brief demonstration of Video Kinect, which is a motion/voice controlled video conferencing device that will enable different Xbox 360 owners and PC users to chat together. Users participating in a video chat can even watch videos together.

However, the bigger announcement came right after the Video Kinect demonstration: ESPN is partnering with Micosoft to bring 3,500 live and on-demand events to Xbox Live. Josh Elliot and Trey Wingo took the stage to demonstrate how the technology will work, which uses Kinect to control replays. Users can also join as a fan of a team, which displays avatars on the bottom of the display with a live score feed. There will also be live polls and trivia available.

This service will be available to Xbox Live Gold members for free. No date was announced at the conferencing.

New online portal launching for EA's latest shooters.

During Electronic Arts' press conference, the company revealed Gun Club, a new online portal where users can unlock and receive special access to new features for many of the company's games. This includes early access to betas and demos, new downloadable content, and the latest news from the developers.

The current list of games this service will be available for are: Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Medal of Honor, a brand new expansion pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 taking place in Vietnam, Battlefield Heroes, and Dead Space 2.

"With this program, our games are no longer individual products and include a range of ecosystem in our securities. By the same token, we show the fans that we appreciate their loyalty," said Jeff Karp, senior vice president of marketing at EA.

"The Gun Club offers a platform to cross the public of our games, interact directly with the players and further enhance the experience of our customers."

What games did Microsoft deem worthy this year?

Microsoft didn't mention Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) at all during its E3 2010 press conference today. But shortly after the conference concluded the company sent out a press release unveiling the lineup for the third annual Summer of Arcade promotion. This is the late-summer event when Microsoft releases its most promising XBLA games in consecutive weeks.

What can you look forward to this year? Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Limbo, and Monday Night Combat.

Summer of Arcade will begin next month.

The hellish jungle made downloadable.

At EA's press conference today, the next expansion for Bad Company 2 was officially revealed in trailer form. Although the details are extremely slim, the trailer started with a long shot of the jungles with military helicopters flying overhead. A Creedence Clearwater tune was playing in the background. The trailer ends suddenly with the expansion pack's logo, which states that the expansion will be coming this winter.

No other details or dates were given at the conference...

The new Xbox 360 redesign is smaller, quieter, and here now.

At its E3 press conference today, Microsoft announced the brand-new Xbox 360 redesign. Smaller and quieter, the new Xbox 360 comes with built-in WiFi and a 250 GB hard drive. The wait for the new Xbox 360 is short, too. Very short. The new Xbox 360 ships today in North America and will be in retail later this week.

The machine costs $299 USD, the same price as the existing 250 GB model. In Australia, it will release on 1st July for $449 AUD and for $499 NZD on 8th July in New Zealand.

The new Xbox 360 is primarily glossy black. There appears to be more vents on it for heat dispersion. The front of the machine has a sharper indent than the current hourglass design.



As if that was not enough of a surprise, Microsoft also announced that anybody at the theater for the press conference would get their mittens on a new Xbox 360 even sooner: Microsoft is shipping them a new machine immediately.


Full Story
The new, slimmer Xbox 360 will be available in stores this week. We've got the full details on all of the console's new features -- and the skinny on what happens to all your older Xbox stuff.

The slim, black X360 comes with a 250 GB removable hard drive. You will need to love it, because your old hard drive won't fit on the smaller system. Neither will your memory cards. That's because the slim doesn't have a slot for memory cards. Instead, it has five USB ports (two in the front, three in the rear). Remember, you can now use a USB flash drive to store up to 16 GB of data.

If you hate noise, this is the X360 for you. Not only does it have a "whisper quiet" disc drive, but the two fans have been turned into one fan for better noise efficiency (AKA quieter). You won't hear the clicky-clack of buttons either. Touch sensitive buttons for the on/off and eject buttons require just a swipe of the finger. Slick. The new system also uses a more efficient power source, so your old power supply won't plug into the back. Don't worry, the Slim comes with a new power cord.

The system offers both an AV port for composite or component connections and an HDMI port. An optical audio jack is also included if you want to connect to a sound system. HDMI and component cables are not included in the Slim X360--just composite cables (for crappy TV viewing).

Any controllers or peripherals you have will work with the new system. There will be some new controllers, headsets, and more designed to match the Slim's hot look if you like to spend money.

The best inclusion with the $299.99 (USD) package is the built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. Previously, gamers had to spend big bucks for a wireless add-on. This inclusion actually saves you a load of cash, which is kind of nice of Microsoft. Kind of makes up for all those extra consoles we had to purchase after our systems broke.

If you don't own an Xbox 360 or if you want a new one, start harassing your local games store. The Slim Xbox 360 will be in stock any day now.

The official name of the Microsoft's motion device unveiled along with games.

While there has been plenty of speculation as to what the official name of Project Natal will be, all of those questions were supposed to end on Sunday night at a Microsoft event.

Now it looks like the official name has been posted by USA Today (the story has since been removed) and the motion device is officially called Kinect. There were also a number of games announced including:

Kinectimals
You can play with virtual animals. Lol cat Kinect!

Joyride
A racing game where players steer with their hands.

Kinect Sports
Boxing, bowling, beach vollyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis.

Kinect Adventures
River rafting with friends.

Dance Central
A dancing version of So You Think You Can Dance.

Star Wars and Disney Games
So far today we've seen posts on NeoGaf pointing towards the name "kinetic" based on an old patent filing. There has also been a post pointing to an Xbox 360 redesign, though we have no indication of its credibility.


What do you think of the name Kinect? Let us know in the article comments below our own guesses as to what the name would be.

During Electronic Arts' E3 2010 press conference, the company announced Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, the latest racing title in the long-standing franchise.

The game is being developed by UK-based Criterion Games, makers of the Burnout series.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will launch on November 16, 2010 in North America and on November 18 and 19, 2010 in Europe for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game will also be released for Wii, but development is being handled by Exient, another UK developer that previously worked on handheld ports of the FIFA and Madden franchises.

A gameplay demo showed that Criterion would be staying faithful to the Hot Pursuit formula, with supercars playing high-powered cops and robbers. A brief two player gameplay demo showed a pursuit in action as two Lamborghini Murcielagos went toe to toe through some tree-lined roads. Online will play a large part, with a feature called the Autolog providing a feed of friends in-game achievements.

"At Criterion, we've been playing Need for Speed since it was first introduced on 3DO. We are honored and excited by the opportunity to reinvent the franchise for today's connected audience. Our goal has been to create cops vs. racers pursuits that are so fun, fast and exciting it really brings to life the adrenaline and intensity of the high speed cop pursuit experience with your friends."

We'll be bringing you a full preview of the game once we get our eyes on it at the show tomorrow.

Today at their E3 press conference, EA announced that Dead Space 2 now has an official release date of January 25th, 2011. They also announced that new, never-before-seen footage of the action-horror sequel will debut at tomorrow's Sony press conference. Be sure to check out our live coverage of the Sony presser tomorrow at e3.ign.com.


Dead Space 2 Preview
At least part of Dead Space 2 takes place on The Sprawl, a city located on a moon off Saturn. Despite the seemingly gloomy ending of the original Dead Space, the sequel puts you once again in the high-tech suit of engineer and up-and-coming bad ass Isaac Clarke. It's unclear what Isaac is doing in the Sprawl, but things in the city have gone to hell and there are necromorphs everywhere. Worse news for Isaac -- developer Visceral Games is upping the gruesome kills. Not just for how you dismember necromorphs, but in how they dismember Isaac.

Season 1 Ep. 3


Inside Gaming E3 Edition: Electronic Entertainment Expo Preview!

Typical show? No way. E3 is right around the corner and the Dead Pixel is here to give you some sneek peeks at what to expect at this years biggest game convention.

This is Inside Gaming for Saturday, June 12th 2010.

Jun 08, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 136


Inside Gaming: E3 Rumors, Red Dead Patches, and Some Bear Throwing.

What could all this craziness mean? It means that Rob Talbert is still hosting the show, filling in for The Dead Pixel while he's on vacation. Check it.

This is Inside Gaming for Wednesday, June 9th 2010.

Jun 04, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 133


Inside Gaming: Mass Effect Multiplayer, HD Earthworm, Rockstar out of E3? (Video Game News) S06E35

Mass Effect Multiplayer, Earthworms in HD, and Rockstar pulls out? This is Inside Gaming for Saturday June 5th 2010.

May 14, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 125


Inside Gaming: EA is Evil, Assassin's Creed 2.5 & Free DLC! (Video Game News).

Hooray! EA is evil again, Assassin's Creed 2.5, and some free DLC!

This is Inside Gaming for May 15th 2010.

May 21, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 128


Inside Gaming: Dio is Dead, E3 Rumors, & Alan Wake (Video Game News).

Dio is Dead, E3 Rumors and some Alan Wake.

This is Inside Gaming for May 22nd, 2010.

May 25, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 129


Inside Gaming: Assassin's Creed Beta, Force Unleashed, & Red Dead (Video Game News).

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is getting a Beta, Star Wars The Force Unleashed 2 Screenshots and our Red Dead Redemption First Look.

This is Inside Gaming for May 26th, 2010.

May 28, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 131


Inside Gaming: Killzone in 3D, Microsoft shakeups, Retro Goodness (Video Game News).

Killzone goes 3D, industry shakeups and some retro goodness, today. This is Inside Gaming for May 29th, 2010.

Jun 01, 2010 — Season 6 Ep. 132


Inside Gaming: Robot Unicorn, Natal Rumors, & Half-Life on the Mac (Video Game News)

Robot Unicorn in your pocket, more Natal rumors, and Half-Life on your Mac! This is Inside Gaming for June 2nd, 2010.

The Dead Pixel is joined by special guest host, Rob Talbert!