Tom Armitage

Something For The Weekend: Finish Those Games!

E3 is over, and my feedreader, Twitter-stream and pub conversations have, at long last, all calmed down from their temporary frenetic haze of hype and speculation. As usual with the industry's tentpole conferences, there's always far too much to take in, far too big a glut of announcements, and at least as many announcements of returning franchises as new IP.

Yes, I dropped the F-bomb. Franchise is such an unpleasant word; it signals the point where a game becomes a business, where annual or biannual updates are guaranteed until the title is unpopular, and where the return on your investment is likely to decrease between each successive installment.

Or does it? Much as the F-word makes me nauseous, many of my favourite games end in a number. There's nothing wrong with a good sequel, just as long as it is a genuinely good sequel. And lots of the suffixed titles shown off this year looked jolly good.

The footage we've seen of Modern Warfare 2 (above) once again proves that, when it comes to pacing and technical perfection, Infinity Ward really know their stuff. I'm quite excited by what's been shown of Bioware's Mass Effect 2, both in terms of where they're taking the narrative tone and the tweaks and enhancements being applied throughout the game's mechanics.

I'm trusting Valve in their decision to make the already high-up-my-list Left 4 Dead 2 a stand-alone title in its own right. I'm even, dare I say foolishly, somewhat interested in the spectacular (yet potentially dull) Assassin's Creed 2 (above). And I don't think there's anyone that won't relish the chance to return to all those beautiful planetoids in Super Mario Galaxy 2, especially now there's a dinosaur companion to enjoy them with.

Looking down that list serves a purpose other than tiding me over the quiet summer months and starting to write my Christmas list, though. It also reminds me of how many games on my shelves aren't finished.

And so that's my plan for the weekend, and indeed the coming weeks: triaging the stack, and Finishing Some Games. I've returned to Mass Effect, having cleared the horrible difficulty spike that is Matriarch Benezia, and am looking forward to wrapping the adventure up, my savegame ready to be imported into the sequel come next year. I'm slowly pushing on with my plan to get my regular cohorts into Advanced campaigns on Left 4 Dead, and maybe - just maybe - survive one without dropping the difficulty level.

And, having just acquired a Wii, I'm stepping into the majesty of Super Mario Galaxy for the first time. What a game! It charms and thrills in equal measure, and whilst I may be collecting stars for the first time, I'm sure many of you still haven't collected all 120. If not, now's the time to fire it up again and remember what that wonderful world feels like.

And then, when all my games are wrapped up (as if that will ever happen), I'll be ready - dare I say it, even deserving - of the treats to come in the Autumn and beyond. What's on your unfinished stack, Offworlders, and what are you going to be finishing up this weekend?

Brandon Boyer

E309: Scribblenauts DS settles Kraken vs. God vs. Keyboard Cat debate

It's been far too long since I last mentioned 5th Cell's puzzler/adventure game Scribblenauts, where -- as I mentioned last December -- your goal is to collect 'Starites' by conjuring, well, essentially almost any object to help traverse the landscape, as seen in the game's latest trailer above.

Over the past 7 months, 5th Cell has continued to up the ante on its gimme-an-object-any-object promise (enlisting artists like Pirate Baby Cabana Battle's Paul Robertson to help quick-draw new additions), and how well does it work?

Well, from the show floor video above, pretty stunningly well, only failing out on the Nintendorks' fairly reasonable request for Obama, but managing to pit a jackalope, a stegosaurus, a kraken, God (and, anecdotally, Death [Death killed God!]), and Einstein against each other.

And, just in case you were wondering (I wasn't, but I'm glad to know now), as apparently witnessed by ex-1UP/EGM writer Nick Suttner (who makes a cameo above): yes, Keyboard Cat is in the game.

UPDATE: Tiny Cartridge and Joystiq writer JC Fletcher updates with a picture of not just keyboard cat playing the Scribblenauts level off, but also feline cohort meme Longcat stretching into the sky.

Brandon Boyer

E309: the first look at Over The Top's WiiWare debut Icarian

Icarian: Kindred Spirits -- the WiiWare debut from Madrid based studio Over The Top -- certainly borrows more than a little (however coincidentally) from original WiiWare game LostWinds, but, given the trailer above, extends the idea of solely creating drafts with the WiiMote to more direct control of its broken Greek landscape.

Over The Top say the game concerns the search for the fallen Icarus by main character Nyx, who, like LostWinds' Toku, needs to be protected and guided on her journey, as you slowly gain the "powers that gods such as Zeus or Eolus will grant."

At very least, it should tide over the throngs still holding out desperate hope for Nintendo to revive its Kid Icarus franchise. Find a few sharper screenshots below the jump.

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Brandon Boyer

E309: Nintendo to localize DS puzzler Rittai Picross as Picross 3D

One More Go columnist Margaret Robertson has already done a wonderful job of explaining the sculptural brilliance of HAL's logic puzzler Rittai Picross: a game of "destructive artistry at its finest, with just a hint of witchcraft."

Even though it's still worrying listed as a 'TBD' release, Nintendo has just given us the strongest sign that it intends to bring the game to the U.S. with an appearance as Picross 3D at E3. That's no sure bet: its GBA bit Generations lineup made a strong debut at E3 the year they unveiled the Game Boy Micro, as well, but let's hope this little bit of noise will be proof that the game does have a willing audience.

Rittai Picross [Nintendo]

Brandon Boyer

E309: Broken Rules' turnabout platformer And Yet It Moves coming to WiiWare

Also gone almost entirely noticed over the course of the E3 week: the fact that twisted indie platformer And Yet It Moves, from Vienna studio Broken Rules has been stealthily announced for a WiiWare release in Fall 2009, after only just made its way to Steam and other digital download services in early April. Above: a teaser trailer for its PC release.

Brandon Boyer

E309: Bedtime story gaming with Nicalis's own WiiWare Night Game

Nicalis's other upcoming WiiWare game -- its original Night Game, from Knytt creator Nifflas -- continues to shape up with previously unseen new... is vehicles the right word? The video also shows off more of the game's fantastic ambient score from Asthmatic Kitty's Chris Schlarb. Nintendo has listed the game as a fall 2009 release.

Part of me wishes the game would procedurally generate new levels for me to roll through every day, no matter how aimless -- gaming needs its own version of the bedtime story, and this seems as close as anything's ever come to fitting the bill.

Brandon Boyer

E309: the latest look at Nicalis's Cave Story WiiWare remake

As I wrapped up many of the Sony games not mentioned during their E3 press conference on Wednesday, today I'll bring word of a number of DS and Wii games that went unmentioned by Nintendo, starting with the latest look at Nicalis's overhaul of Pixel's oft-mentioned and still gold-standard indie platformer Cave Story.

Despite appearances, and dashing hopes, that bit from 0:18-0:25 that looks like the first appearance of co-op multiplayer is, unfortunately, an AI-controlled plot point. Nintendo lists Cave Story as a summer 2009 game.

Hit the jump for a fantastic portrait of main character Quote.

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Margaret Robertson

One More Go: Intelligent Qube, or Murdering Steven Spielberg

I'm not playing it coy this time. The game I've gone back to this week has no truck with coy. It is Kurushi, the 'Modern Times' of videogames. If you're American you might know it as Intelligent Qube, which means you missed out on the oh-so-subtle 'I krush u' pun of the European title.

It will have crushed you, nonetheless. It's a game that pits a tiny, fragile human against an implacable, advancing wall of giant, granite cubes. There is no winning, only surviving. There is no reward, only a fresh wall of furious, thundering monoliths. It is, in many respects, the most frightening game ever made.

Why go back to it? Because it remains one of the neatest strategy games ever conceived. Your job is to lay mines under the advancing wall to destroy the light grey blocks, while avoiding damaging any 'forbidden' black blocks. As the cubes roll forward, you detonate whatever mines you have laid under them. The only thing stacking the odds in your favour are the green blocks: hit one of these, and it will take out all the blocks around it.

That's it. Destroy the grey blocks and get out of the path of the black ones. Failure comes either by being crushed, or by running out of ground to retreat along. You need excellent spatial skills and the ability to think three steps ahead, and you have to do it all fast.

It's also one of the cleverest games ever conceived. I'm not entirely kidding with the 'Modern Times' reference. This is a game about how one apparently powerless person can take down the faceless system. It's about our need to measure ourselves against machines, and machines against ourselves. And, if you ever make it all the way to the end, it's about death. And not the St-Peter-meeting-you-at-the-gates-with-your-childhood-dog-and-a-mug-of-cocoa kind of death, either.

This week, though, I've been playing to lose. This week, I haven't been the brave, battling human, the tiny spark of organic potential refusing to be ground in the gears of industrialised progress. This week, I have been the cubes. This week, I am become death. I am become rage. I am become unstoppable, howling fury, mashing the pathetic, scuttling bug of a human beneath my perfect planes and razored bevels. Because, this week, that tiny human hasn't been man. He's been a man. A very specific man.

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Brandon Boyer

E309: Hideo Kojima takes the reins for PS3, Xbox 360 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Hideo Kojima's biggest surprise for E3 wasn't the potentially 4-player portable Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker or Raiden's return for Metal Gear Solid Rising, but -- newly unveiled at Konami's late-Wednesday conference -- the fact that he will be assuming production control for Lords of Shadow, the latest attempt at bringing Konami's decades-old Castlevania franchise to life in full 3D.

In development for PS3 and Xbox 360 by Madrid studio Mercury Steam -- the same team behind Clive Barker's Jericho -- Konami says Lords of Shadow is "one of its most ambitious and innovative titles to date", with "a rich, open game world that traverses snowy mountain ranges, Gothic castles, and undead-strewn wastelands in a devastated Southern Europe during the Middle Ages," and a star-studded voice lineup that will include Robert Carlyle, Natasha McElhone, Jason Isaacs, and, yes, as above, Patrick Stewart.

Whether those key words "open game world" are code for a game that will retain the later 2D Castlevanias signature slowly-unfolding back-tracking structure remains to be seen, but Kojima's involvement, however executive and overarching, is surely meant to inspire confidence that this might be the 3D Castlevania done right, after a series of four earlier attempts across Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 2 that, by most accounts, were not.

Hit the jump for a collection of high res screenshots.

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Brandon Boyer

One shot: popping the child-proof lid on Infinitron Polypharma

Fez co-creator Phil Fish unveils a new logo for 'Infinitron Polypharma', with the tagline "curing diseases as we invent them", which can only mean one thing: work steadily continues on Power Pill, Polytron's iPhone collaboration with Paper Moon creators Infinite Ammo.

Brandon Boyer

E309: Echochrome meets Braid for time-shifting PSP puzzler Echochrono

One of the most experimental concepts shown at E3 thus far, and yet another game quietly announced but not explicitly mentioned by Sony: a PSP followup to Jun Fujiki's Echochome, the Escher-esque PS3/PSN downloadable in which wireframe artist models traversed impossible constructions using tricks of perspective to bridge gaps and open paths.

This time, as the name implies, the trick isn't visual but temporal: like Braid and Yoshio Ishi's Cursor*10 web games, players will have to -- as seen above -- use versions of previous rewound playthroughs to advance characters in later playthroughs.

Brandon Boyer

E309: United Front demos ModNation Racers paint-brush track editor

In case you still haven't made your way through video of yesterday's Sony conference, video of one of its most pleasant surprises: United Front demoing their "race, create, share" game ModNation Racers, specifically their honestly quite impressive and intuitive paint-brush track editor.

I'll be interested to see how the community really can exploit the system more than just cosmetically and create tracks that truly set themselves apart: Front hasn't fully demonstrated verticality or suspended tracks, and my gut reaction is to wonder how varied they can ultimately otherwise be (though I have, just now, started mentally designing elaborate offroad shortcut side-tracks).

Two additional screenshots showing a bit more of their vinyl-toy-inspired customizable characters are embedded after the jump.

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Brandon Boyer

E309: Sony goes augmented reality with PSP creature hunter Invizimals

Also only noted in brief passing during Sony's montage of upcoming PSP games: Invizimals, an augmented reality monster hunter/battler game from Barcelona studio Novarama that utilizes the PSP's camera attachment to "hunt" invisible creatures and capture them via included augmented-reality cards.

The PSP camera originally debuted in Japan in 2006 and was released across Europe a year later as Go!Cam (the Go! brand obviously now widening with the latest model PSP), but still has yet to make its stateside appearance: the teasing of Invizimals is the strongest sign yet that it might finally arrive.

Brandon Boyer

E309: Just Add Water's PS3 retro-vector twitch shooter Gravity Crash

One of the many exclusive PlayStation Network downloadables not specifically called out by Sony in its Tuesday conference: Gravity Crash, a new shooter from UK dev Just Add Water that mashes Geometry Wars-esque retro-vector style with twitchy dual stick shooting, and, more importantly, includes a full level editor to let players create and share their own twisted neon worlds.

Brandon Boyer

E309: 4-player simultaneous play in PSP's Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker?

Hideo Kojima's full sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 will also follow the events of its PSP debut Portable Ops, again focused on Liquid Snake/Big Boss's storyline up to the establishment of Outer Heaven (if I'm understanding Kojima's labyrinthine storyline correctly): the location you infiltrated as Solid Snake in the NES original.

More interestingly, with Kojima promising to take full advantage of the PSP's capabilities during Tuesday's Sony press conference, four player simultaneous play seems all but assured, both with the lineup of four near-identical Snakes at the end, and the double-box gag at the end of the trailer.

You can see a double-set of boxed Love-Pack'd legs, too, in the screenshots included after the jump.

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Brandon Boyer

E309: first look at the PSP's littler LittleBigPlanet

Media Molecule's first look at the downsized PSP version of its LittleBigPlanet seems to confirm that, for now at least (Media Molecule have previously said they're investigating the possibility), there won't be cross-platform content sharing between it and its big PlayStation 3 sister, but there's still hope, at least, for it to be able to talk with the company's planned web-based portal and level browser.

Hit the jump for ten screenshots of the game (unfortunately delivered in fairly low resolution).

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Brandon Boyer

E309: the latest look at Quantic Dream's PS3 thriller Heavy Rain

David Cage's collective output at Quantic Dream has always been nothing if not massively ambitious: from the wide open world of his PC/Dreamcast debut Omikron to the multi-camera cinematic perspective and directly user-controlled actions of PC/Xbox 360's Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, with both just undercut from being true masterworks by tiny details.

The jarring quick-time event sequences that undercut the latter will assuredly be returning to his PS3 exclusive latest detective thriller, Heavy Rain, but, from the trailer above, you can see how hard Quantic has worked to integrate them more tightly with the scene: notice the razor thin R1 floating just above the gun during that stand-off moment.

Either way, it's still one of my most anticipated games for the console, and I'm very curious to continue to see how they'll continue to walk that tightrope between player freedom and directed narrative.

Brandon Boyer

E309: Meet the Brütal Legend Rock Gods

The latest look at Double Fine's PS3/Xbox 360 open world metal slasher Brütal Legend introduces the star power the studio's tapped with its four Rock Gods: Judas Priest's Rob Halford, Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister, Lita Ford, and, of course, Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne.

Brütal Legend [EA/Double Fine]

Brandon Boyer

E309: New Super Mario Bros Wii, the trailer

Nintendo's newest New Super Mario Bros takes the polygonal realism of the DS version and puts it in HD, and adds four player drop-in, drop-out play to the mix. New powerups, as above, include the propeller suit and the ice-ball firing penguin suit, and the game now banks on the same "co-opertition" aspect explored in Zelda: Four Swords.

Like that game, you can rely on the other players to help get you through a bind, but they can also undercut you in a mad dash to collect the most coins (by tossing you out of the way, or refusing to pop your Yoshi's Island-esque bubble that you return to life in), with a multi-player ranking at the end of each level.

Brandon Boyer

E309: Does Beatles: Rock Band have the most fantastically surreal game intro of all time?

Answer: yes, full stop.

As I hinted at before, somehow the team at Harmonix, alongside Gorillaz animator Pete Candeland of Passion Pictures (I'm presuming, based on Candeland's similarly jaw-dropping work on Guitar Hero II's TV ad and the full-3D Rock Band 2 intro), have managed to even out-Katamari Katamari Damacy for what I'm going to call as the finest surrealist game intro we've ever seen.

And it's for the Beatles. At first, you'll think, hey, what amazing likenesses! This is like when the Mamas and the Papas were on Scooby Doo, only even more completely brilliant! And then a minute and twenty later, the doors of perception are blown open and it changes, and then another 25 seconds later, it blossoms even further into a relentlessly glorious technicolor dreamscape to the very end.

Apart from the updated trailer for Sony's The Last Guardian/Trico, this could easily be the best cinematic treat to come out of E3 2009.

UPDATE: Harmonix has posted a beautiful hi-def version of the intro to the official Beatles: Rock Band website, where you can pick out even more details and legacy references, like the tiny jar of Marmite Ringo packed for his British Invasion, sitting in his Strawberry Fields Farm box. If this animation doesn't pick up some Major Awards in 2010, I'll eat my bowler.

Brandon Boyer

Wandering witches: new details on Valve's Left 4 Dead 2

The collective friends of Offworld over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have recently returned from an exclusive visit to Valve with an exclusive hands on preview of what, precisely, is going on down south in the studio's just announced Left 4 Dead sequel.

My favorite new described addition? The Wandering Witch:

It seems in the daytime, the Witch has a bit more pep. Rather than sitting crouched, sobbing, singing, now this most terrifying of gaming enemies methodically paces around, wandering where she sees fit, although still apparently zoned out. She may be on foot, but she's no more interested in being disturbed. This adds in a whole new aspect to Witch evasion. No longer can you simply take the long way around where she's squatted. Instead, she may well be walking exactly where you're headed. Or worse, walking up behind you, singing her haunting song, suddenly infuriated by you when you swing around in terror.

Left 4 Dead 2: Exclusive RPS Hands-On Preview [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Brandon Boyer

E309: the 5 things you need to know about Sony's press conference

1.) Sony unveiled their own new motion tracking system, aptly titled the PlayStation Motion Controller

Sony were up front about the rampant leaks in recent weeks, saying up front "we consider ourselves to be industry leaders, and press leaks are no exception," but it still had a few surprises up its sleeve.

Primarily, the PlayStation Motion Controller, a 'magic wand' type add-on that utilizes the PlayStation 3's camera to track 3D movement across one or two hands. Sony went through a bevy of demonstrated uses, making the controller act as first person shooter aiming device, writing utensil, two handed archery simulator, and real-time strategy unit selector, all with a legitimately impressive amount of finesse.

The company said it would be releasing more information about the device soon, in anticipation of an early 2010 launch.

2.) Sony are circling the wagons and re-emphasizing a lineup of third party exclusives

After losing Grand Theft Auto to competing consoles, first and foremost Sony announced that Rockstar North, the studio behind the GTA series, would be creating Agent, a story of global espionage and assassins set in the late 1970s that will be exclusive to PS3.

Sony also showed the first footage of Final Fantasy 14, a new online version in the series (the first since FF 11) that was announced as a game that would "launch exclusively" for the PS3.

Also shown: the first official trailer for The Last Guardian, the third game from Ico and Shadow of the Colossus creator Fumito Ueda that leaked recently as Project Trico -- the updated trailer showed a fantastic deal more detail than that early target video.

For the PSP, Hideo Kojima came on stage to reveal Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a game he said was set, too, in the late 70s, and would serve as the official sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, and would take full advantage of the PSP's capabilities. Kojima promised he was heavily involved in the game both as script writer and as executive producer, with much of the same original team as MGS4, and would not be a simple spinoff project.

Other PSP titles in its lineup coming in the near future: a new exclusive Resident Evil, LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM, Monster Hunter Freedom Unlimited, Motorstorm, Hannah Montana, Harry Potter and the exclusive Gran Turismo mentioned in the Qore leak.

3. Sony is placing greater emphasis on the PSP as a media device

Sony's already widely leaked PSP Go will be launching on October 1st in America and Europe at a 249 dollar/euro price point, and alongside it will come a new PC media manager app called Media Go, meant to better sync photos, music and video between your PC and the PSP.

Also added to the new PSP model firmware this fall (as well as the PS3) will be an on-device port of its proprietary musical application SensMe, that, like iTunes' 'Genius' functionality, will analyze your music with '12 tone recognition' and create new playlists based on your mood.

Adding to the PS3's already sizable video library -- which will now include new content partners Showtime, G4, E, HDNet, Starz, TNA, Magnolia Films, and new anime and sports channels -- Sony announced that content delivery will be coming natively to the PSP this fall, as well.

4. Sony still strongly believes in the 'play, create, share' theme

To that end, they not only announced new partners for LittleBigPlanet like Disney -- who will be adding Jack Sparrow, Cinderella and The Incredibles costumes -- but they announced a new PlayStation 3 exclusive game from its internal San Diego studio and Vancouver's United Front called ModNation Racers.

At heart a kart racing game along the lines of Mario's own, the twist is -- like LittleBigPlanet near-infinite customizability in both characters, cars, and tracks. United Front demonstrated the track building feature, which was as easy as painting tracks, terrain types, scenery like trees, mountains and villages, and powerups with a virtual PhotoShop brush applicator, and then instantly tested out the track with no loading or delay.

The game featured a superdeformed character design style similar to LittleBigPlanet's Sackboy, which the developer said was inspired by vinyl toy scene artists like Kidrobot and Tokidoki, and are therefore completely after my one true heart.

5. As I suspected, Sony are actively chasing more independent developers for PSP

How? By announcing a price drop for its PSP developer kits by some 80 percent to $1,500 in North America, and 1200 euros across Europe and PAL territories.

Brandon Boyer

E309: the 5 things you need to know about Nintendo's press conference

1.) Nintendo is going back to basics with more Mario

The overarching theme of this year's E3 conference was striking a better balance between the new gamers Nintendo has been reaching out to for the past several years without alienating its long-standing audience.

For the latter category, then, they brought back Mario, with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a single-to-four-player classic sidescroller due this holiday season that brings in the 'co-opertition' elements it brought to Zelda: Four Swords to its other hit franchise.

Nintendo also announced Super Mario Galaxy 2, an extension of its 3D Wii debut that will more prominently feature his Yoshi companionship, Mario vs. Donkey Kong: March of the Minis, a version of its Mario puzzler series coming next Monday as a DSiWare downloadable, and a fall 2009 localization of its DS Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story, a Fantastic Voyage-esque game that sees the characters moving through Bowser's body on the lower screen, mixed with Bowser's own exploits on the screen above.

2.) Nintendo is revitalizing other franchises with new partners

Nintendo ended the conference on its hardest-core note, by announcing that Ninja Gaiden developer Team Ninja would be partnering with the company to develop Metroid: Other M: a third-party action based Wii followup to Retro Studios' first person games, due out in 2010.

3.) Nintendo is not finished with creating and exploiting new hardware interfaces

Namely, the newly unveiled Wii Vitality Sensor, a small WiiMote-connected device that clips onto your finger to measure your pulse. Nintendo head Satoru Iwata explained that the company wants to be able to "visualize something otherwise invisible" -- nervousness, focus -- and possibly create new games that focus on relaxing, rather than stimulating, the player.

Nintendo also re-revealed the new MotionPlus sensor which gives the WiiMote greater precision with the upcoming sports mini-game collection Wii Sports Resort, due July 26th, and third party sports games like EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Grand Slam Tennis, and Sega's Virtua Tennis 2009.

That also goes for Wii Fit, which will be getting its own expansion, Wii Fit Plus this fall with new workout activities, new minigames, and, most importantly, the ability to string exercises together without any interruption (as does older PC, Xbox, PS2 fitness trainer Yourself Fitness).

4.) Nintendo also wants to more tightly integrate with social networks

Like Microsoft announced yesterday with its Xbox 360 Facebook application, Nintendo also announced that its DSi handheld -- equipped as it is with two on-board cameras -- will also be able to natively integrate with Facebook to upload user photos directly to the service.

5.) Nintendo want to continue to cater to everybody

This was made clear from the start with their underlying and repeated catchphrase "everyone's game", and their diverse first and third party lineup.

Games showcased for the DS: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, a localization of create-your-own-microgame studio WarioWare: DIY, new Zelda adventure Spirit Tracks, gritty new Ubisoft IP adventure game C.O.P.: the Recruit, and a return of underdog Game Boy Advance RPG series Golden Sun, all for the hardcore. For the wider audience, James Patterson's Women's Murder Club: Games of Passion visual novel series, and fashion-based game Style Savvy.

And for the Wii: Square Enix's open world adventure Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers, Sega and High Voltage's first person shooter The Conduit, Capcom's Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and EA's rail shooter sequel Dead Space Extraction.

New images and movies will be added to this post as they are released!

Brandon Boyer

E309: Rez creator, Ubisoft partnering on 'Project Eden'

One last tidbit from Monday's Ubisoft presser: though they offered no further details or any information altogether, the company announced it would be working with Rez and Space Channel 5 producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi on a new project, tentatively titled Eden, says various reports from the floor. As Brandon McCartin points out in the comments, Eden was one of the original codenames for Rez.

Meanwhile, the fate of his partnership with Atari originally announced in December for a Wii project codenamed QJ is as unclear as ever, though Siliconera recently dug up evidence that some music had been licensed for the project.

Brandon Boyer

E309: Ubisoft bringing No More Heroes 2 to the U.S.

Also revealed at Monday's Ubisoft press conference, the company's commitment to bring Desperate Struggle -- the follow-up to Offworld favorite developer Grasshopper's original ultraviolent slacker slasher No More Heroes -- to North America in 'early 2010'. The new trailer above more than speaks for itself by amping up the style and the inescapable innuendo by a factor of 50.

Brandon Boyer

E309: the hyper-styled slapstick debut of Rabbids Go Home

Ubisoft have always known they've had a hit character on their hands since the debut of their mini/party-game collection Rayman Raving Rabbids, but they've apparently hit an even more graceful stride with the first full trailer for the Wii's Rabbids Go Home above.

I can't say I even fully grasp what the final game will entail -- Ubisoft says it will solely consist of two Rabbids "pushing a shopping cart and causing mayhem" -- but, second only to Valve's "Meet The..." series, it's so confidently stylized and effortlessly funny that I'm almost instantly willing to follow wherever they lead.

Brandon Boyer

E309: All Points Bulletin, Crackdown devs make crime massive

Long in development (and long one of my most anticipated online games) but just shored up again this week with a new EA publishing partnership and this new trailer above, All Points Bulletin -- from original Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds -- promises to take the core cops and robbers story and make it massive, with a persistent MMO open world, deep customization and gang identity, and (as promised a year ago), many smart touches, like streaming the same song (via last.fm) to all various online players that enter a car at the same time.

Brandon Boyer

E309: What Microsoft's also bringing to the Xbox Live Arcade

Microsoft spent surprisingly little time talking about Xbox Live Arcade developments during its press conference yesterday -- and left its Community Games section even further in the dust -- but GamerBytes has uploaded the above sizzle reel showing a few of this year's upcoming downloadables.

Though it's marked as internally developed, Splosion Man is a new platformer from Twisted Pixel, the creators of excellent PC/XBLA action/puzzler The Maw, and you'll also see, among other things, another look at the microtransaction supported avatar racer Joyride from Vancouver's BigPark, a quick look at the dual analog sidescrolling shooter Shadow Complex from former Advent Rising devs and Undertow creators Chair, and RedLynx's heavily physics-enabled motocross-y puzzle game Trials, now due for a console release.

Brandon Boyer

E309: a double shot of new Monkey Islands in motion

As noted yesterday in kicking off E3 coverage, LucasArts and Telltalle Games have partnered to rejuvenate the classic Monkey Island adventure franchise with both a new Wii/PC episodic series and a remake of the original for PC and Xbox Live Arcade.

Above, the trailer for Telltale's new take, and below, a longer look behind the scenes at LucasArts's own special edition from its new original cast voiceovers, updated graphic style, and rerecorded music.

Also of note, original series creator Ron Gilbert -- now heading up development at Hothead on his own new adventure, Deathspank, reminisces about the creation of the original Monkey Island and the problems of an emaciated Charles Atlas.

Brandon Boyer

One shot: rallying support behind the King of Kong contender

Justonemoregame provides this constructed collage to cheer on King of Kong star Steve Wiebe as he attempts to reclaim the Donkey Kong crown live at E3.

You can watch Wiebe's attempts streaming live at this link, starting in just a few short hours.

Tom Armitage

One Shot: Ceci n'est pas un spy

Game-ism comes up with the goods today: a lovely take on what Magritte might have made out of one of TF2's spray memes.

[FYI, This is Not a Spy - Game-ism]

Brandon Boyer

E309: the 7 things you need to know about Microsoft's press conference

1.) Microsoft unveiled the 3D motion sensing and facial/voice recognizing "controller" project named Natal.

Microsoft promised the moon in its demo video for their Project Natal, carrying the tagline that it would "make 'you' the controller" and that, as the controller is the current "barrier separating game players from everyone else," with Natal, "the only experience you need is life experience."

As above, Microsoft demoed racing games, fighting games, and simple sports games using full body spatial recognition that let you hold up virtual steering wheels, duck, weave and deliver punches, and kick goals using nothing more than their physical actions.

But the company also took that a step further, promising full facial recognition -- demonstrated by walking in front of your TV and having the Xbox 360 instantly log you in to your personal account -- and object scanning, like holding up your own skateboard and having it instantly placed in a game. Microsoft added that the system could function just as well in a multiplayer environment.

For real world use, apart from a ringing endorsement by none less than Steven Spielberg, Microsoft called up Fable producer Peter Molyneux to demonstrate Lionhead's project Milo -- a virtual friend that they promised could carry on fluid conversations with full voice and emotion recognition, and demoed sleight of hand tricks like drawing on a piece of paper, holding it up to the Natal sensor, and having Milo "receive" that same paper in the virtual world, with additional recognition of what you'd drawn.

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Brandon Boyer

E309: First gameplay trailer of Harmonix's Beatles: Rock Band

Though I'm actually jonezin' so much harder to re-watch the game's animated intro that kicked off Microsoft's E3 conference (especially the White Album era bits!), Harmonix has instead just released the first gameplay trailer for their Beatles: Rock Band.

The trailer gives you a look at the band through their various stylistic eras, as well as the first look at the mechanics of its harmonizing vocals -- a technique Harmonix utilized in their earlier Karaoke Revolution games, but which are just now debuting in Rock Band via the Beatles.

The game will include 45 songs on disc, ten of which have just been announced -- "I Saw Her Standing There," "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "I Feel Fine," "Taxman," "Day Tripper," Back In The USSR," "I Am The Walrus," "Octopus's Garden," "Here Comes The Sun," and "Get Back" -- with full downloadable albums being delivered later, starting with the entire Abbey Road album, and an Xbox Live exclusive on the song "All You Need Is Love."

As noted before, the game will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii on September 9th.

Brandon Boyer

E309: First look at Valve's Left 4 Dead 2

Just announced at Microsoft's E3 conference as an Xbox 360 console exclusive, Left 4 Dead 2, a new chapter of the game that takes the struggle against the horde to the southern bayou, and will focus more strongly on melee weapons -- chainsaws, axes, frying pans, and baseball bats -- on top of its updated arsenal of guns.

The game, due to launch on Xbox 360 and PC on November 17th, will also include new boss zombies, new survivors (seen above), and "more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, and maps for Survival mode available at launch."

Brandon Boyer

E309: six minutes of WayForward's Boy and his Blob Wii remake

We've seen a short clip of the game in motion before, but WayForward have returned with a longer video of the interplay between the boy and his titular blob, in their new Wii game inspired by David Crane's NES original.

Brandon Boyer

E309: LucasArts announces new Wii, PC Monkey Island, Xbox Live remake

And so E3 coverage officially begins: first up, LucasArts has announced the revival of its classic adventure series Monkey Island with Tales of Monkey Island, a new five-part monthly episodic series for WiiWare and PC by the Telltale Games, the same studio of LucasArts vets behind both the Sam & Max revival and the Strongbad series games.

Following that, LucasArts will unveil The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, an internally developed remake of the original game that will add "updated high definition graphics, a re-mastered musical score, and full voiceover", exclusive to PC and Xbox Live Arcade.

The Tales series is due to launch in "a few short weeks," with the Special Edition due "later in the summer."

Monkey Island [LucasArts]

Brandon Boyer

o--D.I.Y. 5--o: Noby Noby Boy unlocks Mars, the analog version

I consider it a Very Lucky Day when I wake up to an email from Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, who this time wrote to remind me that Noby's GIRL had finally made the last push to Mars.

And just when I was reaching for the reply button to remind him that I'd actually already done my tribute post to the occasion, I realized just what his enclosed above video actually was. Embarrassing admission: it kind of gave me goosebumps.

o--o [Namco]

Brandon Boyer

Can't say no to Edge: Olly Moss returns with four new retro-inspired game/book covers

Officially, Olly Moss was off the case on his original series of retro-book covers that helped kick off the long-running design craze, but, like a reluctant Solid Snake, he was called back into action and created these four for an upcoming Edge magazine article on evergreen games.

Says Moss: "You can't say no to Edge."

The instant winner of the four: his cover for Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4, which, in the context of the game (the plus-sign numbers counting toward your multiplayer kill-score) is much more grim than it would first appear.

Brandon Boyer

Cranes are flying: first direct footage of Flashbang's competitive construction game

What you might not have expected from all the early footage of Flashbang's next web-playable Blurst game, Crane Wars (and I certainly didn't until this latest look): it's much more a game of con-struction, with de-struction simply the goal of its newly shown-off titular competitive aspect.

And, for a game about, you know, just cranes and buildings, it's shaping up to be as charming and light-hearted as we've all come to expect from the 'bangs by now. The sudden appearance of a dumptruck tumbling through the air -- thrown, it turns out, by the AI opponent to stymie your progress -- is your first taste of that, which carries through right to the union/scab banter at the end, all underscored by the cheerful score by Infinite Ammo's Alec Holowka.

All in all, it's looking quite fun, and is expected to hit the service on July 1st.

Brandon Boyer

Waking up sweaty: Cactus reveals LoFi Minds' shooter/platformer Air Pirates

Offworld favorite indie dev Cactus finally long-form reveals Air Pirates, his LoFi Minds collaborative "game about killing airplanes", which will be coming next month to UK TV network Channel 4's "E4" entertainment subsite.

What I hadn't known before: the Flash game of "pirates, airplanes, giants, loot and secret bases in volcanoes" will apparently include platformer sections, spotted briefly toward the end of the video, which has since doubled my interest.

Brandon Boyer

Rabbits: the subtle terror of obesolete's DIY Silent Hill plush toy

Etsy user obesolete offers this plush toy of one of Silent Hill's creepiest conceits (as below): the obliviously joyful and blood-splattered series mascot Robbie Rabbit (only the second most terrifying rabbit-related horror of all time).

Robbie Rabbit Plush - Silent Hill by obesolete [Etsy, via TinyCartridge]

Brandon Boyer

Go! Time: regarding this weekend's PSP Go leak

For the small handful of you that hadn't yet heard, a quick recap: that low but growing squeeee you might've heard Saturday afternoon was the deflating balloon sound of one of Sony's biggest E3 surprises -- their new model PSP, the Go (and with it confirmation/video of portable LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear and Gran Turismo games) -- being unceremoniously leaked early via their PS3 downloadable TV show Qore.

The full-body-wince irony is that ridiculous cloak and dagger dressing they chose for their Qore reveal -- which likely was meant to be set live this Thursday, two days after this coming Tuesday's E3 press conference.

But, with the lesson learned and the damage irreversible, Rob over at BBG rounds up the specs that set it apart from the standard PSP -- 3.8" display, 16GB of flash storage, a Memory Stick slot, and Bluetooth -- and offers a smart look back at former Sony devices that show some of its industrial design roots.

The biggest change for the device, is of course not necessarily one of form factor but of content delivery: without a physical UMD slot, the Go represents Sony's boldest push yet into digital realms, and thus will not replace but sit alongside (for now) the company's PSP-3000, ensuring that retail (by which I mean the fierce sleeping giant GameStop) is not cut entirely out of the mix.

But! The most Offworld-ready tidbit of information out of the stilted conversation above -- and offered almost entirely in passing -- is Koller's admission that there'll be a renewed initiative to bring smaller (read: indie?) PSP offerings to the device as well. While Sony's been doing a better job at re-releasing older UMD releases via digital means, there's still only a very small handful of dedicated digital PSP releases on the PlayStation Network, and even then mostly downscaled handheld ports of PS3 originals (see: fl0w or Everyday Shooter).

This, then, apparently shows Sony hoping to step into somewhat the same arena as Nintendo -- with its newly launched DSiWare -- the ever-present iPhone, and whatever XNA-on-Zune handheld initiatives Microsoft might be announcing in a matter of hours, which it first revealed at GDC 2008 and which seems to have gone almost entirely forgotten since.

Brandon Boyer

One shot: Neil Voss's music generating iPhone puzzler, xgon

Artist, designer and musician Neil 'alinear' Voss offers the first peek at xgon, the upcoming iPhone "puzzler and music generator mashup" he says bears only a coincidental resemblance to Trism -- now instantly one of my most anticipated apps.

Brandon Boyer

One shot: Polytron's work-in-progress #fezfriday debut

Polytron co-founder Phil Fish kicks off his new #fezfriday feature -- showing off whatever he happens to be working on in Fez at the moment -- with this eye-popping and inter-dimensional work in progress shot of one of the game's floating islands.