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.

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:

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

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.

Punch- Out!!

A new trailer for Punch-Out has revealed that the title will definitely include a split-screen multiplayer mode. This mode had previously been rumored to be a feature of the new game, and it has now been confirmed by the trailer that premiered on the GameTrailers TV show last night on Spike TV. Punch Out will be released for the Nintendo Wii on May 18th.

Bioshock 2

Also premiering on GameTrailers TV this week was the first gameplay footage of Bioshock 2. The footage looked very similar to the first game and features the Big Sister in action. Bioshock 2 is rumored to be released later this year, but a firm release date has yet to be announced.

Assassin’s Creed 2

Finally, fans of Assassin’s Creed might want to look out for the May issue of Game Informer magazine, featuring a cover story on Assassin’s Creed 2. The cover of the magazine has been posted on the web, and a clear picture of the game’s main character has also been released. Interestingly, players will not be controlling Altair this time around. Instead, the protagonist for the Assassin’s Creed sequel will be a man named Ezio Auditore, an Italian noble from the 1400s.

Note: Click on the above images to see the hi-res versions.

Gone are the down on the streets chasing the bad guys as in Batman Begins and Rise of Sin Tzu. Gone are the frustrating controls of Dark Tomorrow. Instead Rocksteady has created a stealthy action game out of Arkham Asylum.

The story is simple: Batman is escorting The Joker into Arkham for what seems to be the last time. As they descend into the gloomy atmosphere, there is an explosion. The Joker breaks free and begins to release all of Batman’s previously captured foes. With no exit and countless enemies against him, Batman must enter the belly of Arkham to capture once and for all those who would destroy him.

The following is the gameplay footage of Arkham that shows off the new Splinter Cell-like gameplay.

The game is slated for release in June.

Source: Gamespot.com

I don’t recommend watching the trailer if you haven’t played the first game. The only spoiler comes in the form of in-between stuff, but still. Anyway, enjoy!

]]> http://www.geekshow.us/content/video-games-content/video-game-news/mass-effect-2-debut-trailer/feed/ 4 http://www.geekshow.us/content/video-games-content/video-game-news/nintendo-dsi-coming-in_april/ http://www.geekshow.us/content/video-games-content/video-game-news/nintendo-dsi-coming-in_april/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:33:34 +0000 Polygon_Wizard http://www.geekshow.us/?p=4071 Nintendo has announced the U.S. release of the newest iteration of their popular handheld platform. The Nintendo DSi will be hitting store shelves in America on April 5th, 2009.

The DSi is the third version of Nintendo’s dual-screened handheld following the original design and the wildly popular DS Lite. The new hardware will remove the GBA slot in the front of the handheld in order to facilitate the system’s slightly slimmer design. However, the DSi will add two cameras (one on the outside and one facing the player), more internal memory, support for SD cards, and the ability to play music (in AAC format). The platform will also feature the DSiWare application, a downloadable game store similar to WiiWare.

The DSi will retail for $169.99, a fairly significant increase over the DS Lite’s $129.99 price tag. The new system will only be available in black and blue when it first launches.