The delicious aroma of roasting basketball.

During the course of playing Human Revolution, I discovered a back alley in the Detroit hub area that happened to have a small basketball court complete with an in-game ball. Like most players, I spent some time attempting to toss the ball through the hoop with small success. It was an amusing distraction but fairly short-lived. I moved on to whichever side mission I was working my way through at the time. But then something started slithering its way into the back of my mind, prompting me to wonder what else I could do with that basketball.

Would my character still hold onto it when moving into cover beside a wall? Could I carry it up a nearby fire escape and attempt a long range trick shot? Could I take it with me wherever I went in the game as if I were suddenly Tom Hanks craving companionship? What were the limits of this seemingly innocuous object?

This curiosity finally overcame me, so I made my way back to the basketball and began to drag it around wherever I could. I found random apartments in which I could perch the basketball on top of the toilet. I found a locked safe that I promptly hacked open so I could place the ball inside. I found a set of bicycles that I could perch the ball on top of if I dropped it just right. I found a bum passed out on the street that almost looked like he was performing a lazy “Air Jordan” style dunk while lying on the ground. All he needed was a ball to completely sell the illusion. I found a group of back street denizens gathered around a fire burning inside a rusty barrel, just waiting for me to make a small addition to their kindling.

The Tour de Basketball begins.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a lot to offer. It rewards creative tactics and exploration. It caters to different play styles by offering a wealth of skills to unlock and different weaponry to use in lethal and non-lethal varieties. It allows you to punch through walls, breath toxic fumes without choking, leap tall fences in a single bound, turn yourself invisible, lift extremely heavy objects, leap from rooftops without fear of dying, use pheromones to influence conversations, see through walls, and become immune to electric shock. It offers up small details outside of the main story for you to discover. It allows you to complete objectives for future missions you haven’t even found yet without skipping a beat. I allows you to sneak past guards undetected, take them out silently, or go after them guns blazing depending on whatever you feel like at the moment. The game wants you to play “your way”, and for the most part, it is successful in doing so.

Way to be lazy, Bob.

Final Grade: A-

The new game staring everyones favorite neighborhood Spider-Man has premiered at WonderCon and has been released online! From the storyline it looks like we will getting a tale centered both around the present Peter Parker Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099. The story was penned by Peter David (The Incredible Hulk comics, and Aquaman comics) and is set for a fall release.

They say this game isn’t a sequel to “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions”, however from what I see in the gameplay it is very similar. Take into account I played very little of “Shattered Dimensions” (a little past the Kraven level), but I did not enjoy it mostly due to clunky controls. Let’s hope this will be better!

Listen to SuperGeeks and maybe Thomas and Jeff might have a take on it! What do you guys think of it?

-Reid Ackerman

And possibly one of the best trailers of any kind. Period.

Not much is known about the game quite yet, but it looks like Dead Island might be one to look out for…

Considering they’re breaking their NDA to tell us anything about the game our source must remain confidential, but thanks to them for their review anyway! Here’s what they thought:

Alright first off I’ll take you through the character creation fine
points of the game, some is a little disappointing but for the most
part I’d put it more then City of Heroes, less then champions online.
I’ll explain, first step is your server, we have a choice between two
PvE servers and a PVP. After this step you get the cinematic trailer
they release a while ago, after the battle is over and it cuts to Lex
talking to sups, bats, and wonder woman. He releases the “exobytes” he
stole from Braniac that he had gathered from all the fallen heroes in
the future. Now on to the character creation portion of our story lol.
Male or female, for this i’m going to go male, no differences except
in looks of course. From here we get Large, Medium, and Small, body
type. Large would be normal Bane before Juicing up, still huge and
bulky but not outrageous, medium is every Joe shmo super hero and
villain, and small is Robin size. After you pick your size you get a
choice, Custom designed, or Inspired by, if you pick inspired by you
get a choice of Batman, Superman, Catwoman, Lex Luthor, The Joker, The
Flash, Wonder Woman, Deathstroke, Bane, Circe,Beast Boy, Mister
Freeze, Green Arrow, Steel, or Martian Manhunter. This is your costume
design, and your allegiance step if you don’t change it in your
character sheet before you finish. For fun i’ll list off the the
custom steps

Step 1
Hero or Villain

Step 2
Personality;
Comical
Flirty
Powerful
Primal
Serious

Step 3
Mentor(the guy giving you alot of your orders and steering the
direction of your gameplay.
Hero Side
Batman
Superman
Wonder Woman
Villain Side
The Joker
Lex Luthor
Circe

Step 4
You select your Power
Fire
Gadgets
Ice
Mental
Nature
Sorcery

Step 5
Movement Type
Flight
Acrobatics
Super-Speed

Step 6
Pick your Weapon
Bow
Brawling
Dual Pistols
Dual Wield
Hand Blast
Martial Arts
One-Handed
Rifle
Staff
Two Handed

After this your brought to your summary step(Final Character sheet
where can change anything,including you costume design, I won’t list
everything about the costumes because there is a lot to choose from,
I’ll say the categories you can change, Helmet, Face, Emblem, Shirt,
Back Slot, Hands,Waist,Pants, Feet. Once you are Happy click next on
your character sheet and put your name in and hit Start.
You start out disoriented on a Braniac Hive ship, if your a
Hero, Oracle will begin talking you through who has to happen to get
you off the ship, if your a villain, its Calculator. I won’t ruin
anything more about this part, other then tell you its basically your
training area where you learn basic controls.
Once off the hive ship, once again if a Hero, you end up in a
police station, and if your a Villain, a night club. You get your
missions from your mentor busting in over your coms, or from
Oracle/Calculator, or any other random hero or villain that decides
they need you and some point. You’ll either pick some up like quests
in any other MMO, exclamation point over a head, or the mission will
come in over the coms.
As you level you get Power Points, or you will get Skill
Points. Power points go toward that power you picked, so I’ll give you
the break down of the Sorcery tree because its what I have in front of
me at the moment, I’m not going to describe every little power, I’ll
just say think Diablo 2 still tree, or World of Warcraft, or basically
any RPG with a tree system. For Sorcery there is a Destiny Tree and a
summoning tree, and the destiny tree is more spells oriented, where
the summoning three is more geared toward a few pets that follow you
around, one that is a damage dealer and one you can tell to heal you,
but both you have to tell what to do all the time, as far as I can
tell there is no automatic. At level 9 or 10, can’t remember you get
your upgrade to your movement type, I’ve only tried Flight and
Super-speed, not sure on the Acrobatics, basically for your movement
speed you push F on the keyboard for it to be turned on, and then when
you want your locked “supermovment” you hold number lock,(all keys can
be remapped). its basically just your main movement power only you
triple the speed. My favorite thing to do with super speed, and
unfortunetly might be a bug, is to run up a large building and just as
im about to crest the top, jump, and all the forward upward momentum
gets channeled into the jump and you end up jumping what feels like a
2 or 3 blocks. Also at level 9 or 10 you get access to the Iconic
Powers tree, Heat Vision, and “Non-Venom growth”, and batterang, to
name a few.
On to skill points, these get put into your Weapon tree or your
Movement tree. Your weapons tree are basically the combos you can
preform through combinations of mouse clicks and mouse button holds.
Your movement tree consists of things like tornado if your a
speedster, where you pull your enemies to you grounding them
temporarily.
On to the Gear gathered in game. You will get equipment it will
be better but look ridiculous on you, unlike other games this is not a
problem because of two things, one you can say no I don’t want this to
change the way I look and two because you have the ability to go back
over all the different styles of looks on everything and mix and match
how ever you please. This in my opinion is awesome.
PvP, in open world is just like free pvp in any other game. If
you are on a PvP server, and you see somebody this opposite you, Hero
vs Villain you can hit him and he can hit you, and if you are level 8
and he is level 30 it is going to hurt…
The arenas are a blast, I’ve done a 5 man on Gorilla Island, it
was a blast. I haven’t been able to do to many of the PVP things
because there is never anyone on when I am on.

These are the basics I can think of got any questions that might make
it easier for me then writing a book like I just did, and sorry for
grammer/spelling slash horrible writing, just got off a 9 hour shift
and about to crash.
All and all my verdict on the game is I’m having a blast, I’ve played
through to level 20 on a hero and now I’m at level 18 on my villain.
It is way more fun then Champions Online was to me.

DC Universe Online will be released in 2011.

In addition to revealing the anticipated sequel’s name and release window, the September issue of Game Informer features two different stylized covers featuring Batman: Arkham City. Seeing as how Catwoman appears on both, it is probably safe to assume that the character will have an important role in the game. Two-Face also appears on a poster in the background of one of the covers. Rocksteady Studios did a great job with the original game, and the announced release window implies that they are taking enough time to put the same amount of polish and detail into the sequel.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Gameplay Trailer

Scott Pilgrim squares off with a world of hurt in this Exclusive Debut Gameplay from his video game adaptation!

Devil’s Third – Debut Trailer

Get ready for an all-new level of pain and dismemberment in this new game from legendary creator of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, Tomonobu Itagaki!

Fallout: New Vegas – Gameplay Trailer

Obsidian Entertainment and Bethesda Softworks return you to the desecrated world of Fallout with this trailer for New Vegas from E3 2010!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned – Preview

This RPG is based off of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Get ready to pillage all across the seven seas with Armada of the Damned at E3 2010!

Super Scribblenauts – Gameplay Trailer

Everything you think you know about Scribblenauts is turned upside-down when Maxwell returns with adjectives!

Dead Space 2 – Gameplay Trailer

Dead Space returns to bring E3 a new level of horror from Outer Space in this exclusive Debut Gameplay!

Killzone 3 – Cinematic Trailer

Temperatures drop as the battle heats up between the ISA and Helghast in this Exclusive Debut Trailer.

Battlstar Galactica Online – Trailer

Man or machine? Which side will you take in this sci-fi MMO.

Mortal Kombat – Trailer

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios are preparing for the return of Mortal Kombat.

LEGO Harry Potter – Character Trailer

Harry Potter’s colorful characters, now in LEGO form.

Homefront – Backstory Trailer

North Korea makes a series of bold moves in this chilling newsreel-style trailer for Homefront

Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions – Trailer

Miguel O’Hara’s rendition of Spider-Man from 2099 is revealed as the third of four dimensions!

Rock Band 3 – Trailer

Rock Band keeps firing on all cylinders with this announcement trailer from E3 2010!

Rock Band 3 – Interview

Rock Band kicks it into high gear with a new keyboard, new guitar, and the entire Rock Band song archive available at launch to heighten the experience.

…And just like that, it turns out that the file was UK only, and was yanked down. False alarm, apparently.

Before getting to the list proper, I’d like to mention a few caveats, a disclaimer if you will. I think it is only fair that I only include games that I have actually played on this list. Expectations rarely measure up to actuality, for good or bad. So while I am sure games such as Halo 3: ODST, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, The Beatles Rock Band, Infamous, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter 4 are all most excellent, none of them will be appearing on my list. Additionally, if a game didn’t come out this year, it won’t appear on the list even though this is the year in which I first played them. Otherwise you’d be seeing appearances by games such as Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Space, Civilization Revolution, and Battlefield: Bad Company.

You would think these things could go without saying, and you’re probably right. However, you wouldn’t want to deprive me of the fun of writing a disclaimer, would you? I didn’t think so. So without further ado, I bring you my picks for Game of the Year 2009.

Best Playstation 3 Game of 2009
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 was the only new release that I played on the PS3 this year (due to buying the system so late in the year), so it kind of won by default. Regardless, I feel pretty good about this choice as Uncharted 2 is an amazing example of an adventure game at its cinematic best. The best thing about Uncharted 2 is the interplay between the extremely well-written characters. Incidental banter goes on even while you are playing, not just in the cutscenes, fleshing out character personalities and quirks in the process.

If you could choose only one game to show off what the PS3 can do, Uncharted 2 is definitely the game you want to pop in. The game is absolutely gorgeous, almost to the point of distraction. Getting killed during a firefight because you were admiring a beautiful waterfall or strange sculpture in the background is a problem every game wishes it could have. In a world full of “great looking” titles that think muddy browns are the ultimate in artistic expression, Uncharted 2 dares to use a vibrant palette of colors heavy in reds and greens.

The greatest looking digital scenery in the world doesn’t mean that much if it doesn’t feel alive. Uncharted 2 excels in this area thanks to the amazing quality of the animation. Character movements are smooth and realistic, vehicles bounce around on bumpy roads the way you expect them to, and guns look impressive and dangerous when you fire them. The sheer amount of quality animation in Uncharted 2 is breathtaking. There is definitely a good reason behind those commercials Sony put out where some guy’s girlfriend thinks this game is a movie. Uncharted 2 is almost as fun to watch as it is to play.

Best Nintendo Wii Game of 2009
Unplayed

Unlike the PS3, the only 2009 Wii game I played this year was a big disappointment. It was so disappointingly average that it kind of soured me on Wii games for the rest of the year, causing an apathy that led to skipping games such as WiiSports Resort, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, Dead Space Extraction, and even New Super Mario Bros Wii. Despite all the evidence pointing towards those games being good at the very least, I just couldn’t bring myself to play any of them. For that reason, this category remains empty thanks to The Conduit.

Best Nintendo DS Game of 2009
Unplayed

Some of my apathy towards the Wii bled over to the DS this year. The first half of the year didn’t really have anything that grabbed my attention. However, E3 2009 caused Scribblenauts to leap onto my radar, and I was really excited to get my hands on the game. Unfortunately, Scribblenauts ended up being a great concept hampered by poor execution, especially in the controls department. It is fun for a while as a novelty but gets extremely frustrating very quickly. As a big Zelda fan, I am really looking forward to playing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, but it hasn’t quite been released yet, so the DS category remains blank as well.

Best PC Game of 2009
Plants vs Zombies

Some people would probably place a different game into this category, but we’ll get back to that in a second. First we’ll get to my pick for the best PC game of the year, Plants vs Zombies. PopCap has figured out some sort of magic formula for creating addictive casual games. For example, Peggle can be a huge time waster, and Bejewled has been cloned about a billion times by now. Plants vs Zombies is a charming little tower defense game in which you have to defend your yard from a zombie onslaught with a variety of cartoony plants. There are several different modes in addition to the regular tower defense mode and plenty of things to unlock, keeping you playing “just one more round” until well after the sun goes down…and comes back up. On the surface, Plants vs Zombies may not seem like it belongs in a list with a bunch of “hardcore” games, but it is just as much fun and far more addictive than many of its bigger cousins.

Best XBox 360 Game of 2009
Batman: Arkham Asylum & Dragon Age: Origins

The Xbox 360 took a much bigger overall share of my play time this year. The number of good games I played on the system made narrowing things down to one game rather difficult. Should I choose the game that surprised me the most? Should I choose the game I spent the most time with? What to do?

In the end, I cheated and picked two: Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins. While Assassin’s Creed II improves over the original in just about every way and Modern Warfare 2 is an excellent escalation of Infinity Ward’s first foray into modern day gun fights, I decided to give the edge to original titles. Red Faction Guerrilla almost made the cut as it easily dominated my playing time this summer. However, I settled on Batman: Arkham Asylum and Dragon Age: Origins for the same reason. Both games do an excellent job of creating an engrossing world and completely sucking you into it through story, characters, and gameplay.

Arkham Asylum is easily the best Batman game ever made, but you know it is special because it would be a really good game even if it didn’t star the Dark Knight. Rocksteady Studios made great use of the license in a way that turns a really good game into a great one. Sure, it’s a lot of fun to beat up henchmen no matter who you are, but doing it as the ruthlessly efficient Batman is even better. Arkham Asylum feels like a real place you are inhabiting and exploring rather than a set of video game levels. Also, enough can’t be said about including elements of Batman the Animated Series in this game. Arkham Asylum sometimes feels like a slightly darker version of that show, due in no small part to the writing of Paul Dini and the voices of Mark Hamill (The Joker), Kevin Conroy (Batman), and Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn).

While Arkham Asylum brings the world of Batman to life, Dragon Age: Origins brings a completely original fantasy setting to life with incredible detail, inhabiting the RPG with interesting characters and difficult choices. Some people would list this in the PC category, and I am sure that it plays very well with a mouse and keyboard. Personally, I have spent well over 70 hours playing the game on the 360 so far, loving every single moment along the way. While Dragon Age isn’t the biggest visual powerhouse, it is still very impressive from an artistic design standpoint if not polygon count. Each place you discover feels like it has a history to it, and every area feels distinct due in large part to the different designs found in the architecture, objects, and creatures that you find.

The biggest strengths of the game, however, lie in the amount of flexibility in how you play your character and the impact of your choices on the world you are playing in. There are six completely unique origin stories to play through that influence and flavor the game differently as you play through it. The thing that impresses me the most about Dragon Age is that it manages to make the game equally fun to play, no matter what type of character you are playing as. Playing as a Warrior is just as much fun as playing as a Rogue or a Mage, even though each play style is quite different. Each character type has a lot of room for customization such as what types of magic you decide to use or if your warrior uses large two-handed weapons, a sword and shield combo, or dual weapons.

Excellent voice acting and a wealth of text-based “codex” entries about all the people and places you visit are just more evidence that Bioware certainly hasn’t lost their magic touch when it comes to creating fascinating RPG worlds to explore.

—

Overall Game of 2009
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

So of all the games released this year, which one stands out? Which one has that little something extra that takes it over the top? (As if you couldn’t guess by those pretty pictures on the left.) While all of the games I’ve mentioned are excellent, Uncharted 2 gets the edge for its sharply written character dialogue and eye-popping graphics. Naughty Dog has raised the bar for what we can expect from video game characters. I hope the studio can eclipse themselves again in Nathan Drake’s inevitable next adventure. Uncharted 3 can’t get here soon enough!

Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST share the same multiplayer. So if you have either of the two, you can join in. What we play will be determined by how many people we have, and what they have access to play. There are several map packs, as well as ODST’s exclusive Firefight mode. But if you are missing any of those, we can accomodate that. If you are up for playing tomorrow (Tuesday, 9/22/09), drop me a message on Xbox Live, so I can get an idea of how many people will be playing, and at what times.

Discuss this on the forums - (1) Posts

We had heard a lot of this before, and we’ve even seen some small clips featuring some of this. However, much of it (including the Sith Warrior class) is being shown to the public for the first time. Also, it’s all put together for the first time. The walkthrough definitely shows a lot of promise to the game. If the title ends up having enough content and depth to it, it could really turn out to be special.

Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, and Alan Tudyk will all be lending their voices to Halo 3 in what appears to be a large portion of the game. you will play the main character of the game, a character called “The Rookie”, who has very little to say. However, the three whedonverse actors will make up the other members of your team. In the case of Nathan Fillion, you will not only hear the actor, but also see him. When the character removes his helmet, he has a striking resemblance to Nathan.

If you are looking for a sample of what the characters will sound like in the game, look no further than the recently released HALO ODST ViDoc. The “trailer” is narrated by Nathan Fillion’s character, and introduces each member of the team. It gives you a good opportunity to hear each of the other actors in turn. Check it out:

Alec Mason has come to Mars looking to start his life over. All he wants to do is meet up with his brother and work hard. Unfortunately for Alec, things don’t go exactly as planned, and he quickly finds himself caught up in events when his brother is shot by the Earth Defense Force (EDF), the ruling government on the planet. It turns out that Alec’s brother was involved with the Red Faction, a band of colonists fighting to disrupt the EDF’s control of the red planet. Left with little to no choice, Alec becomes the newest member of the Red Faction.

The objective of Red Faction: Guerrilla is to free several different sectors of the Martian colony from EDF control. This is done by completing several different types of available missions. All of the main story missions must be finished before completely ousting the EDF from an area, but their control must be sufficiently lowered before the final story mission of any given sector becomes unlocked. Colonist morale in a sector is also affected by Alec’s actions. Different types of missions will either cause morale to go up, EDF control to go down, or a combination of the two. When the morale of the citizens is raised high enough, they will join you in firefights and supply crates will contain more ammunition.

The currency system that is used in Red Faction: Guerrilla is salvage. Certain missions have a salvage reward for completing them, but most of Alec’s money is gained by destroying EDF property. After causing a ton of mayhem by blowing up vehicles and knocking down buildings, it literally pays to run around and pick up all the pieces of junk that are left lying around. Collect enough salvage, and Alec will be able to purchase better weapons that allow him to cause more destruction, in turn letting him collect enough parts to buy even better weapons. This cyclical system works very well, and it makes a lot of sense within Red Faction’s story as well.

So what kind of weapons can Alec expect to use against the EDF and bothersome walls that stand in his way? Well, he begins the game with a simple sledgehammer and some remote detonators. While these two things may not sound very exciting, they are actually two of the most fun weapons to use in the entire game. The sledgehammer is especially entertaining as it can smash through almost everything you come across. Need a quick exit from a building? Smash a hole in the wall. Pesky soldier getting in your way? Knock him aside. The remote mines are also really versatile, especially when combined with explosive barrels or fuel tanks. Despite the many different weapons collected while freeing Mars, I always found myself returning to these two basics.

That isn’t to say that the other weapons in the game are horrible. Nothing could be further from the truth. Thermobaric rockets are a particular standout due to their huge destructive potential. Hit a medium-sized building with one of these, and half of it will instantly be vaporized in the resulting explosion. The nano rifle is equally effective against real estate and personnel. Its rounds contain a swarm of nanobots that disintegrate just about anything they touch. Among the other weapons are a gun that shoots saw blades, an arc welder that can electrocute people (even those inside vehicles), and an assault rifle with heat-seeking bullets. Alec’s explosive arsenal offers a lot of choice in how to go about tackling missions.

The physics in Red Faction are what makes the game special. There are no canned animations here. Buildings collapse, walls break apart, and fuel tanks explode in a realistic manner. Seeing a large tower collapse under its own weight after you have taken out it’s supports never gets old, and it never happens the same way twice. Taking the time to set up an elaborate chain reaction, blasting away with a rocket launcher, or smashing walls with Alec’s sledgehammer are equally viable ways of destroying a target. Of course, it can be just as much fun taking out a building with a dump truck.

Apart from the main missions, there are several types of side missions to choose from. All important EDF structures are marked on your map, practically asking to be destroyed ASAP. Specially marked vehicles need to be driven back to different safe houses. Kidnapped colonists require extraction from EDF hands. Faction members want help in assaulting EDF bases. Attacks by the EDF need to be repelled. Supply convoys need to be hit and traitorous informers need to be tracked down and dealt with. The variety of mission types offers many options in how to deal with the EDF, keeping the game interesting throughout.

Red Faction: Guerrilla also features different things to search for while traveling around Mars. Hidden radio messages from deceased colonists can be found. Every few messages that you find will reveal the location of a large bomb that can be attached to a vehicle. Hundreds of crystal ore deposits are scattered throughout the Martian landscape that provide a small amount of salvage when smashed with a hammer. Finally, several dozen billboards of EDF propaganda can be discovered and destroyed.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, Red Faction: Guerrilla also includes robust multiplayer modes. Wrecking Crew is a local “pass the controller” mode in which players take turns trying to cause the most amount of damage in a limited time frame. There are many different online multiplayer modes to take advantage of as well. Even traditional deathmatch games take on a slightly different flavor when you find yourself in a collapsing building with chunks of the ceiling falling all around you. Destruction is the name of the game in other modes, such as Siege in which the goal is to destroy the opposing team’s buildings within a time limit while they try to defend it. When the time runs out, the teams switch around and you will find yourself defending your own structures. Adding to the replayability of Red Faction’s multiplayer is an experience system that unlocks new characters and uniforms to play with as you gain levels.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is an open-world game done right. It offers a lot of freedom to play the way you want to, and there is enough variety to keep things from ever getting boring. Enough cannot be said about the physics system that allows every structure to explode, implode, teeter, and collapse in a realistic fashion. A lot of fun can be had in finding different ways to convert buildings into rubble. The single-player campaign offers enough to be a complete game by itself, so the well-constructed multiplayer components are the extremely tasty icing on a scrumptious cake.

Finale Grade: A-

The Conduit tells the story of Michael Ford, a secret agent of some type working in Washington, D.C. when the city comes down with a slight case of alien invasion. It isn’t long before Ford is swept up in the events, taking you along for the ride. Conspiracies are unmasked, allegiances are betrayed, and the capitol is turned into a shooting ground.

The presentation of the story doesn’t do it any favors. Most of the plot is revealed through scrolling text (accompanied by cheesy voiceover) between missions and radio communications in-game. This simplified way of presenting the story makes it hard to connect with the characters and what happens to them. Most likely, you won’t really care why you have to shoot everything that moves, you just will. The game also features the All Seeing Eye (A.S.E.), a device that basically reveals invisible things such as hidden messages on the walls and explosive mines. The potential of the device is pretty much wasted, and you will rarely find that you need to bother with using it.

While the story behind the single-player is fairly generic and lackluster (feeling somewhat like a Perfect Dark clone), The Conduit is still fun to play thanks to the excellent control scheme. If you have ever played Metroid Prime 3, you’ll have an idea of how the controls in The Conduit are set up. The pointer function of the Wii remote is used to aim your weapons, and Agent Ford’s movement is mapped to the nunchuk. Firing is as easy as pulling the B-trigger, making shooting intuitive and fun. Be warned however, that you will most likely have to tweak the controls to find something that feels perfect. Luckily, just about anything you can think of (and some things you probably didn’t) can be adjusted to your heart’s content. Things like pointer sensitivity, dead zone, turn speed, and whether you turn when the pointer is off-screen can all be tweaked until they are “just right”.

Once you have the controls exactly how you want them, it will take about 6-8 hours to play through the single-player campaign. Once you’ve finished it, there is little incentive to play through it again, despite the existence of hidden messages and data disks to find. The story isn’t compelling enough to entice a second go-around. The plot is wafer thin, even for a shooter. Just about the time that things start to get interesting story-wise and you think the game is about to crank it into high gear, the main campaign abruptly ends shortly after it began, leaving things wide open for a sequel.

If the single-player campaign were all that The Conduit had to offer, it would be pretty disappointing. The game also includes the option of online multiplayer that does a lot towards making the overall package a worthwhile one. The Conduit makes the most out of Nintendo’s online setup, despite the system’s inherent flaws and difficulties. In fact, The Conduit has many features that are found on FPS games on other systems. You will still need to enter friend codes if you want to play with people you know, but the matchmaking system in place makes it really easy to jump into a game with random players, up to twelve total.

Each of the three main game types (deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag) has several different variations available to play. Every player is given the opportunity to vote on game type, map, and weapon set in the game lobby before each match. Once the votes are tallied, the mayhem begins. Personally, I had the most fun with the Explosive weapons set on a level called Streets. The map is a small one, making the action very chaotic and fast seeing as how everyone is armed with rocket launchers. The available options seem pretty standard when compared to shooters available on other systems, but it’s nice to see these things on the Wii.

On a technical level, what High Voltage has been able to achieve with The Conduit is rather impressive. The game features many advanced graphical effects and techniques not commonly found in a Wii game, including bump mapping and animated textures. Unfortunately, all these effects are wasted on generic corridors and bland characters. Most of the time, the art design for the game is severely lacking in originality. There are a few moments that rise above the mediocrity of the rest of the game. Unsurprisingly, each and every one of these moments happens when The Conduit briefly lets the player outside of the generic offices and hallways and into the great outdoors.

The Conduit may be on par with Metroid Prime 3 (or even slightly better) in the controls department, but High Voltage could learn a thing or fifty from Retro Studios about level design. All of the Metroid Prime games have a great sense of “place”, really pulling you into the world. Every nook and cranny looks unique, something that isn’t the case for The Conduit. High Voltage’s world often feels copy/pasted. There were several times during the campaign that I went through a set of corridors, went around a corner, and got a huge sense of deja vu when the new area looked exactly the same as the one I had just left.

Despite its flaws, The Conduit still manages to be quite a bit of fun to play. It’s too bad that the customizable controls, graphical technology, and robust online multiplayer modes get bogged down by the poor story and bland art direction. Future Wii shooters should take note of the technical things The Conduit does right and incorporate them into a game with more creativity in the visual department.

Final Grade – B-

In Prototype, you play as a character that wakes up on an autopsy table with no memory of how he got there. Alex Mercer has been infected with a strange virus that has the side effect of giving him a ton of super powers. Alex is a little upset about his new condition, especially since the military seems to be out to kill him, so he sets out to find those responsible for infecting him and the outbreak that is taking over Manhattan.

Prototype is the latest in the run of open-world games to hit store shelves recently. Like most sandbox games, Prototype aspires to offer the player a lot of freedom in how to play the game, and it succeeds for the most part. Prototype offers several things to do on the side as well as a healthy helping of core story missions to complete.

The game begins on the eighteenth day of the city’s infection. Alex Mercer has a fully upgraded set of powers, letting you get a taste of the things to come before the narrative flashes back to the beginning of the infection. Even though Alex only has a few powers available after this, the game is very generous with upgrades, both in quality and quantity. The full list of Alex’s powers is massive, with so many combo moves and abilities that you will be hard-pressed to remember them all in the thick of battle. However, the game lets you upgrade as you wish by spending “evolution points” on whatever powers you would like, provided you have enough EP to do so. Doing just about anything will net you points to spend, so you will rarely find yourself on the poor end of the gene pool. Destroying infected water towers is a particularly good way to quickly earn large amounts of EP.

Arguably, the thing that Prototype does the best is freedom of movement. From the beginning, Alex can easily run up the sides of buildings, run at high speeds, jump long distances, and fall from great heights without penalty. It isn’t very long before the Glide and Air Dash powers are unlocked, allowing Alex to soar great distances between rooftops. Once all of Alex’s movement abilities are unlocked, traveling from one side of Manhattan to the other is a joy. It is so much fun that hijacking helicopters or tanks just to get around becomes almost pointless, despite the fact that helicopters are technically the fastest way to get around. However, hijacking vehicles for extra firepower is another story.

As the infection spreads through the city, the military is working to suppress it. This back and forth struggle is represented by different zones that pop up around Manhattan. Red zones are overrun with the virus, often housing an infected building called a hive at the center of the zone. Military bases are found in the center of blue zones throughout the city. Despite the large number of powers available to Alex, he will need a lot more firepower if he wants to take down a military base or an infected hive. This is where hijacking tanks and helicopters comes in handy.

So how does a super-powered amnesiac learn to fly a helicopter? The answer is Alex’s absorption ability. The virus running through Alex’s system gives him the ability to rewrite his DNA to the point that he can “absorb” anyone he runs into and take on their form, sort of like a deadly human copy machine. Alex gains the memories and skills of everyone he absorbs, allowing him to pilot helicopters and handle various military weapons. This ability also ties into Prototype’s Web of Intrigue feature. While the game has several hidden orbs to find (in the same vein as Crackdown), the Web of Intrigue is a much more compelling collection-based activity. Basically, there are several different people scattered about Manhattan with knowledge of the outbreak. Each time Alex absorbs one of these people, he unlocks another piece of the puzzle about what is really going on. Finding these people is completely optional, but not doing so means you will miss out on a lot of the game’s narrative. The main storyline is very well done and completely understandable on its own, but the Web of Intrigue provides a lot more plot details utilizing an interesting piecemeal presentation. It gives the feeling that you are piecing things together just like the main character.

At first, Prototype doesn’t seem all that impressive visually. However, whatever it lacks in textures and polygons, it makes up for in numbers. At any one time, you can find yourself in a fight with several helicopters, a few tanks, squads of soldiers, and hordes of the infected all at once. Prototype is able to throw a ton of enemies your way and fill the screen with mayhem with very few hiccups to be found. When you are fending off several infected hunters while running up a wall to elbow drop a tank or kick a helicopter out of the sky, you won’t be thinking about anything as mundane as a blurry texture.

Another thing I should mention is that Prototype is out to paint the town….in red. Blood and severed body parts flow freely when Alex Mercer is around. There is nothing to stop you from carving crowds of people into bloody chunks, whether they are enemies or not. If innocent civilians get in the way, Alex won’t think twice about chopping them in half to get to his intended target. Prototype is tailor made for those who prefer games that revel in causing epic amounts of gory mayhem without any apologies.

Prototype is far from a perfect game. There are only a few different character models for the military, making large groups look like clones. Enemy AI seems to be unimpressed when somebody drops into the middle of the street from several stories up or runs along a wall, yet they freak out when you pick up a random person on the street by the collar. Computer-controlled helicopters will sometimes run into the side of a building inexplicably. Absorbing a base commander in full view of all the soldiers will raise the alarms, but coming back a minute later wearing that same commander’s form as a disguise doesn’t raise any suspicions. The difficulty of certain missions suddenly jumps up to a much harder level than those immediately previous to them. There are a ton of little nitpicks like this that I could bring up, but none of these things got in the way of having fun for me.

Despite all of its flaws, Prototype still manages to create a large sandbox that is a lot of fun to play in. Tossing cars about, slicing tanks apart with a giant blade for an arm, and unleashing a barrage of tentacles on your enemies never gets old. Prototype is a perfect example of a game that is more than the sum of its parts.

Final Grade: B

Just Cause 2 is a game I never would have paid attention to if it weren’t for this intriguing video. The game looks to be loaded with a ton of cool “action movie” stunts such as a whole section of this demo where the player is hanging off several different cars during a high speed chase, not to mention starting things off witha little base jumping. I never played the original, but I am certainly considering the sequel.

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This new Castlevania game looks to be taking more than few pages out of the God of War playbook, but the impressive voice cast featuring Patrick Stewart, Natasha McElhone, and Jason Isaacs certainly has me interested.

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If you haven’t seen the phenomenal cinematic trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, go watch it now….I’ll wait. Snippets of the trailer are intercut with this interview of Gordon Walton from Bioware explaining why you should be excited for their new Star Wars MMO.

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Several people from many different gaming sites are calling Scribblenauts their favorite game of the show this year. After watching several videos, including this live demo, I can see why. The game allows you to type in just about any noun you can think of, and it will spawn in the game world, helping you to complete different puzzles. The tens of thousands of words in Scribblenauts’ dictionary means we’ll be able to let our imaginations run wild.

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Mod Nation Racers aims to bring the user creativity and game customization from LittleBigPlanet into the kart racing genre. This is the demonstration from Sony’s press conference in which they show off the track creator by creating a complete racetrack in just a few minutes.

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The studio behind The Conduit revealed two of their upcoming games this week. One of them is The Grinder, a Left 4 Dead style game for the Wii in which you take on the role of a monster hunter in order to slay waves of classic monsters such as vampires and werewolves. The final game isn’t slated for release until late 2010, but the game already looks pretty promising. The demo only has one player, but The Grinder will include online co-op play for up to four players.

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Put Nazi-occupied Paris, a race car driver, and a stylized B&W art style together, and you get The Saboteur. This open-world game features B&W graphics that are accented with the occasional splash of color. However, as you progress through the game, color comes back into the world as you bring “hope” to the people.

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In Darksiders, you play as one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The problem is that the Apocalypse happened when it wasn’t supposed to. This game looks like an interesting mix of gameplay conventions from God of War, Zelda, and Grand Theft Auto.

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Aliens vs Predator may have a bad stigma at the box office, but it has a pretty good reputation in the video game world. The creators behind the original PC game are bringing the AvP universe to the current generation of consoles. This is a live demonstration of gameplay from the Predator campaign.

Microsoft’s briefing was full of glitz, glamour, and lots of games. Nintendo’s conference was full of boring lectures, sales data, a few good announcements, and possibly take-home tests. Sony was a bit of a combination of the two, falling a bit short of the quality of the Microsoft show, but they were far more successful than what Nintendo was able to put together. Sony didn’t cut out all the sales charts like Microsoft did, but they didn’t skimp on showing great looking games either.

Sony’s briefing began with a sense of humor about all the leaks they had beforehand, saying they want to be the industry leader even with news leaks. After a little bit of sales data, Naughty Dog came onstage to show off a demo of Uncharted 2: Drake’s Fortune. The game looks amazing, especially in the quality of character animation. After that, MAG (Massive Action Game) was demoed, showing gameplay for the first time. It looks somewhat impressive, but I’m still not convinced that it will be a compelling experience.

Next up was the official unveiling of the PSP Go. The design is quite a bit different than the current PSP-3000, and it will be co-existing with the current model rather than replacing it. The PSP Go will be in stores the beginning of October with a $249.99 price tag. Coming at the same time as the PSP Go will be a Gran Turismo game for the handheld system. Hideo Kojima decided to show up at Sony’s conference this year (after appearing at Microsoft’s yesterday). This time, he revealed a Metal Gear title for the PSP, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The game appears to take place early on in the Metal Gear story, according to the insanely long trailer that had several different endings. Seriously, the thing just kept on going.

The next section of Sony’s show dragged on for a bit with a few montages and talk about Playstation Home. The crowd had a bit of fun with the presenters when they mockingly cheered for a Hannah Montana game. On the upside, there was a quick mention of a new Rockstar game exclusive to PS3 that is coming called Agent, but little detail was shared.

Luckily Sony got back on track with a live demo of Assassin’s Creed 2. The game looks more colorful than the original, probably due to the Italian setting during the Renaissance. The game’s new lead character, Ezio, is shown climbing buildings and leaping between rooftops much like in the first Assassin’s Creed. However there were several additions and twists to the formula that were shown as well, not the least of which is using Da Vinci’s flying machine to soar over the city. Ezio also has two different hidden blades, allowing him to covertly take out two guards at once, and he can also steal weapons from enemies as he fights them. The demo ended with Ezio leaping into the river to swim away, something that would have meant instant death in the first game. Assassin’s Creed 2 looks very good, and I can’t wait until it hits shelves this November.

Sony then showed off an English-language trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, followed by the surprise announcement of Final Fantasy XIV Online coming in 2010, exclusive to PS3. Everything seemed to be on track for Sony thus far, but then Sony revealed their take on a new motion controller, grinding the briefing to a halt.

The new controller featured was just a prototype, so the final look will most likely be quite a bit different than what was shown today. The new controller basically looks like a ping pong ball on the end of a wand. It works in conjunction with the EyeToy camera to detect position and rotation in 3D space. They showed off several simplistic tech demos of the thing, but it came off looking rather cheap and gimmicky, despite working fairly well. It is supposedly coming in the spring of 2010 despite appearing like it isn’t very far along. Compared to the technology behind Microsoft’s Project Natal camera, Sony’s motion controller doesn’t seem to be quite as innovative.

Luckily Sony had more games up their sleeve after the motion controller was revealed. Mod Nation Racers is another title in the vein of LittleBigPlanet. The game is a kart racer with tons of customization options. Particularly impressive was the demonstration of the simple to use, yet robust track editor included in the game. After that was a trailer for the new Team Ico game, The Last Guardian, looking a lot like Shadow of the Colossus in its art design. Next, Grand Turismo 5 showed up in trailer form, looking rather pretty, but very light on gameplay.

And Sony ended the show right there…….okay not really. They showed off a ton of gameplay from the first few minutes of God of War 3. The game looks to play a lot like the previous games in the series, except it is a lot prettier in the graphics department. The level of detail in the environments and character models was very impressive, and I’m sure it will sell a ton of copies when it releases in March 2010.

All in all, Sony had a really good show, despite the lackluster motion controller tech demos. They showed off a lot of games and an attractive new design for the PSP, certainly a lot more content than what Nintendo had.

The short answer to the question above is: No. You would have thought that Nintendo would have learned a few lessons from last year, but their conference this year was very similar. Someone should remind the Big N that doing a Show & Tell requires you to actually show things and not just talk for a majority of the time. You may be pretty proud of what you are achieving, but that doesn’t mean we want to hear about it ad nauseam. If you are really being as innovative as you claim, perhaps it would be a good idea to show us rather than to stand there talking about it.

Nintendo kicked things off with a montage promo video followed by a lot of talk about how gaming is for “everyone”. They then showed off New Super Mario Bros Wii, a scrolling 2D platformer featuring the rotund plumber and his pals. The game is designed to be played with up to four people at once. A multiplayer Mario was a good start, but Nintendo just couldn’t seem to stop talking long enough to show many games, and most of the ones they did show were rather lackluster.

Next up was the reveal of WiiFit Plus, an expansion of Nintendo’s popular fitness software that is coming in the fall this year. After a lot of talk about the importance of interface to gaming, WiiMotionPlus is mentioned, and WiiSports Resort is shown. Some new minigames were revealed including skydiving, archery, and basketball. After a trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers it was time to move on to the Nintendo DS.

Several DS games were mentioned with a small amount of footage to go with them. Notable titles coming for the handheld include Kingdom Hearts, Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, and Golden Sun DS. Non-notable titles that still got quite a bit of attention were James Patterson Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion, C.O.P.: The Recruit, and Style Savvy.

When Nintendo’s global president, Satoru Iwata, took the stage, I thought something good was in store. Surely he would have something interesting to reveal. Instead he took several minutes to talk about innovation only to show a new Wii peripheral called the Wii Vitality sensor. Basically, you stick your finger in it and it takes your pulse. Someone must have thought it would be a good idea to turn some basic hospital equipment into a video game accessory.

Nintendo went back to talking about games for a while to reveal Super Mario Galaxy 2. The trailer for the game looked a lot like the original Galaxy, with the addition of Yoshi into the mix. I loved Super Mario Galaxy, so a sequel is welcome news, but unfortunately Nintendo said nothing about a release date. After that, Nintendo “wowed” the crowd by talking about three third party games coming this year: The Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space Extraction. I think all three games look interesting, but we have already seen a lot about each before this conference started, especially for The Conduit which comes out in a couple weeks. Where were all the new games that we should be clamoring to play?

The show closed out with a welcome surprise for me. They revealed that Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden fame) is collaborating with Nintendo on a new Metroid title that is supposed to be “edgier”. It is called Metroid: Other M, and the trailer for the game looked pretty good, despite the generic title. As a Metroid fan, I’m all for a new Metroid title, and right now it is slated for release in the spring of 2010. As welcome as this news was, it was too little and too late to save Nintendo’s briefing.

Nintendo seemed too focused on talking about how innovative they are and how gaming is for everyone. Instead of showing a lot of titles, all we got were a few short trailers peppered in between lots of lecturing. Red Steel 2 was notably absent from the show, a big mistake in my opinion as it looked great during Ubisoft’s conference Monday night. The demo of that game did a lot to convince me that WiiMotionPlus is actually worthwhile, and it looks to be everything the first Red Steel should have been. Also missing from Nintendo’s show was any mention of a brand new Pikmin sequel, something that has been confirmed that Nintendo is working on (and rumored to be at the show this year). A new WiiMotionPlus Zelda title was a no-show, even though I wasn’t particularly expecting it to show up.

Had Nintendo included more games in their briefing, it would have been a much better outing. As it was, they totally dropped the ball again, in similar fashion to last year. The few interesting announcements were revealed to little fanfare, and they weren’t enough to keep the conference afloat amid all the boring lectures. At this point, Nintendo is so far out in left field that they seemingly don’t know how to create a show that actual gamers are interested in. Todays showing felt more like something geared towards investors, and I think even they would have had a hard time staying awake.

Nintendo’s conference was by far the worst of E3 this year. Even taking the talkative James Cameron into account, Ubisoft’s conference Monday night was far more successful at showing off games than Nintendo was able to do this morning.

Be sure to say hey when you come in so we know who we have with us. 

Microsoft certainly “dressed to impress” with their conference this year. Their presentation stages are usually pretty lavish, but the stage this year seemed to have a few more lights and gizmos than years past. If anyone was worried that Microsoft was compensating for something, it wouldn’t take too much time to calm their fears.

The show started with a long presentation of The Beatles Rock Band. The opening cinematic was shown, featuring some impressive animation. Several people then came on-stage to demo the game, playing through the entirety of Day Tripper. The screens of the game looked almost exactly like Rock Band, however there were three people harmonizing, and the instruments looked rather impressive. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr came on to much pomp and circumstance, but they pretty much said “We think the game is good” and left the stage.

After a long time spent on The Beatles Rock Band, Tony Hawk came out to show off his new skateboard controller for Tony Hawk Ride. The controller features several accelerometers and even something that lets you move your foot to the side of it to accelerate, just like a real skateboard. Honestly, he should have just said “It’s like a real skateboard, only without wheels.” It would have been much simpler.

At this point, I was hoping that Microsoft would show something more impressive. Luckily the next thing they had up their sleeve was a presentation for Modern Warfare 2. After a trailer, they did a live demo of the game onstage, and everything looked very impressive. The level shown was out in the snow, and the graphical detail was very high. Snow was stuck to the characters’ clothes and blowing in the air, and everything looked very “cold”. The demo began with a cliff climbing sequence, and then it skipped ahead to a sequence set on an enemy compound during a blizzard. The blizzard provides cover, but the enemy soon discovered the player’s presence and explosions and gunfire quickly broke out. The demo culminated in an exciting chase aboard snowmobiles. Yes, you can still fire a pistol while tearing through the snow-covered countryside.

After that, the games kept on flowing. Final Fantasy XIII was demoed on the Xbox, and it looked very good. Epic Games presented a brand new title for XBox Live Arcade called Shadow Complex that was apparently inspired by 2D Castlevania and Metroid games. Trailers were shown for Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Splinter Cell Conviction before the latest of Sam Fisher’s adventures was demoed onstage. Splinter Cell Conviction’s live demo was very stunning in both graphics and gameplay. It looks like Sam Fisher is going to be more of a badass this time around, as a ton of bad guys were quickly dispatched during the demo. Microsoft then took some time to show off Forza 3 which wasn’t very impressive to me, but it looks like it will probably go over well with fans of the series.

Next up was Halo ODST, and it didn’t disappoint. The game will switch things up a bit, allowing you to “flash back” and play sections with different characters in different areas, piecing the story together bit by bit. Lots of things blew up, and it looked very pretty. The presentation from Bungie ended with the announcement of Halo Reach, promising to show you the beginning of the Halo story coming sometime in 2010. However, those who purchase ODST will get into the Reach multiplayer beta. Halo fans seem to have a lot to look forward to.

Next up was a game that most had assumed to be vaporware until now, Alan Wake. The game is now slated to come out in the spring of 2010, and the in-game demo of the Alan Wake looked very good. The game appears to feature a voice-over while you play like someone is telling a story, and title cards like “Previously on Alan Wake” seem to imply an episodic structure. The lighting and particle effects in the demo were particularly impressive. At one point, Alan Wake pulls out a typical flare, but when he sets it off, the flare spews out sparks and a ton of smoke, looking very realistic.

After showing off several games, Microsoft turned their attention to XBox Live. To that end, they announced that last.fm, Facebook, and Twitter will be coming to the XBox, and soon we will be able to add movies to our Netflix queues through the 360 interface. Bonus points go to Microsoft for getting Felicia Day to do the Facebook presentation. Also coming XBox Live is 1080p video content that will supposedly play instantly, and the previously announced Live Party will let you watch content with your friends over XBox Live.

Next Microsoft went on to announce their new motion control camera system, but not before a surprise appearance of Hideo Kojima to announce Metal Gear Solid Rising for the 360. The teaser trailer for the game proclaims that “Raiden is back”, implying that Solid Snake will not be in this game or at least not be the focus.

Now back to that camera. To be honest, I was a little disappointed that it didn’t seem to be that far along. Despite spending a lot of time focusing on the new “Project Natal”, everything seemed to be in the prototype stage. There was a lot of “this is what we hope to do” and “this is what we could do” rather than “this is what we’re doing”. It all seemed very hypothetical to me, and any mention of a price or release window was nowhere to be found.

Several videos were shown, talking about what the peripheral can do, including facial recognition, full body motion capture, moving menu pages with the wave of a hand, and other actions. One demo was for a game that looks very similar to the soccer minigame found in WiiFit, except in the XBox version, you are punching and kicking balls into a wall of bricks in an effort to break them down. Microsoft also showed a painting game that seemed like the equivalent of throwing cans of paint at a wall.

After that, Peter Molyneux came out to show a video of Lionhead Studios’ new tech demo, an interactive character named Milo that utilizes the Project Natal camera to interact with the player. In the video, the woman talks to Milo and he responds to her, but the whole thing felt very scripted and perhaps even staged. It didn’t help that Molyneux was in full-on hype mode, making some pretty far-fetched claims about what was going on.

Overall, I think that Microsoft had a pretty strong showing this year, despite the disappointing “what if” attitude while showing off the new camera peripheral. They showed some great looking games, and there were even a few surprises like the announcements of Left 4 Dead 2 and a new Metal Gear game for 360. They had a few stumbles during the presentation, but it never came to the point where they completely dropped the ball. It wasn’t quite the “revolutionizing of home entertainment” that was hyped before E3, but the Microsoft Conference still had quite a bit of news to share. The complete lack of sales charts was also a big plus in my book.

I’m not sure what Nintendo and Sony have in store for us on Tuesday, but I think that Microsoft left the door open for someone to completely blow us away this year. Will Nintendo or Sony be able to do that? I’m not sure, but I am definitely excited to find out. I will be back later this week to share my thoughts on each of their conferences.

Take the best things about a chat room, and combine them with the best things about Blogging, and you have Live Blogging. Users will be able to log in, ask questions, discuss the latest news, etc. However, the primary purpose is actually to get the news out there. So whether or not people show up to discuss everything, the show will go on. The blog will get posted, and people will be able to read through the history very easily. 

However, like most things, this is the most fun if people are there to participate. So I hope to see some video game fans for the following dates and times:

Microsoft: June 1st – Live Blogging begins at 1pm EST (Set a Reminder)
Sony: June 2nd – Live Blogging begins at 1:30pm EST (Set a Reminder)
Nintendo:  June 2nd – Live Blogging begins at 4:30pm EST (Set a Reminder)

Hopefully, everyone that cares will be there to share their opinions as they roll in. Watching the show and talking about it at the same time. What could be better? Live blogging begins 30 mins before each conference.

Those pesky zombies are at it again. They’re shuffling across your yard, intent on eating your brains. Luckily, nobody hates zombies more than the plants around your house. They’ve taken it upon themselves to protect your home from an endless assault of the undead.

PopCap is the undisputed king of addictive casual games. Bejeweled has been cloned more times than you can count, and other games such as Peggle and Zuma are free-time vampires. Plants vs Zombies is a fairly simple concept on the surface, but the title also has more depth than you might expect at first glance.

Plants vs Zombies is an example of a tower-defense game where you place a bunch of offensive and defensive “towers” in a limited area in order to defend your base from an onslaught of enemies of differing types. Each variety of plant has a different skill to bring to the strategic drawing board, but nothing comes for free. Each plant has an associated cost for placing it on your lawn, measured in “sunshine”. You have to continuously gather enough sun to pay for all the flora you wish to plant. In addition to the initial purchase cost, each type of plant has a set recharge time before you can place another one. In general, cheaper plants recharge much faster than more powerful, expensive plants. Your yard is divided into a grid with a limited number of spaces in which to place plants. The zombies will shuffle towards your house in one of five different lanes, and your plants will only attack zombies within their range, which usually means they must occupy the same lane.

Tower defense games are all about finding the balance between different types of defenses in order to repel differing enemies. Plants vs Zombies offers up a fairly large roster of pesky zombies to defend against. Apart from the generic type, there are zombies with bolstered defense, zombies with extra speed, zombies with excess strength, and zombies with a host of other special traits. As large as the roster of zombies is, it still pales in comparison to the list of plants that becomes available over the course of the game. There are more than enough kinds of plants to defend against every type of zombie, day or night. Some plants can only be used during the day, while others, such as mushrooms, are nocturnal.

So how can a bunch of plants stop all those zombies from entering your house and eating your brains?

Sunflowers are used to generate sunshine, which also randomly falls from the sky during the day. If you don’t take the time to gather all the sun that you can, you won’t be able to build enough defenses. You start out with a basic arsenal including Wall-nuts to stop the zombies in their tracks and Peashooters to take them down. Over time, the number of available plants becomes rather large, and you must choose which of them you will take into battle for each level. My personal favorite plant type is the Kernel-Pult that lobs kernels of corn and slabs of butter.

The zombie horde has several tricks to try and make it across your lawn. Normal zombies merely shuffle forwards, but other types are a little more devious. Pole Vaulting Zombie can jump over the first plant he comes to, and Newspaper Zombie gets really angry and charges across the yard when you destroy his paper. The Dancing Zombie, which resembles a certain pop star, is my favorite.

If this were all that Plants vs Zombies had to offer, it would be a pretty solid game. However PopCap has stuffed this thing to the gills with a goofy sense of humor and more extras than you could shake a severed limb at. Each character in the game has a cartoony feel from the way they look to the way they move. Guiding you through the game periodically is Crazy Dave who wears a pan on his head and speaks in garbled grunts (helpfully translated into speech balloons on-screen). As you encounter different plants and zombies in the game, they are added to an almanac that lists strengths, special moves, and an often hilarious brief description. There is also a shop where you can buy new plants types and a few other defenses. You also unlock a “Zen Garden” where you can grow several plants that earn you rewards when they reach maturity. Apart from the regular Adventure mode, Plants vs Zombies also includes several fun mini-games including Wall-Nut Bowling and a Slot Machine mode in which you must use a slot machine to win different types of plants to defend your lawn. Additionally, there are several puzzle modes such as one where you play things from the side of the zombies trying to fight your way through a group of plants (actually cardboard cutouts so no actual plants are harmed). Finally, you will unlock the Survival mode which ups the ante a bit, making things much more difficult for your spirited band of plants.

Plants vs Zombies is a deceptive little title. It sneaks by your defenses with a cute presentation and goofy charm. You start out by putting down a few waves of shuffling zombies, and you start to think that this might be an easy encounter to win. Soon enough the game gets its hooks into you, and you’ll find yourself neck deep in a horde of zombies with tons of flaming peas flying through the air and snorkeling zombies swimming under your defenses, muttering curses under your breath as the zombies eat yet another one of your precious plants. It’s only then that you’ll realize hours have passed you by in the blink of an eye and too many utterances of the phrase “just one more”. Plants vs Zombies wears the guise of a “casual” game, but it has just as much depth, polish, content, and thoughtful strategy as any “hardcore” game. Perhaps the term “casual-core” should be invented, if it hasn’t been already.

Overall Grade: A-

And now a reminder from the NPA (Neighborhood Plant Association):
There’s a zombie on your lawn…