If you’re a PSP gamer, and the first two Patapon games somehow crept past you, then you’d really be well served to take a look at the series. A well designed and sharply implemented merging of rhythm game and real time strategy RPG made the first two games both addictive and joy inducing.

My wife used to laugh at me bouncing up and down on the couch in time to the beat, until I made her play the first one. She got the appeal right away, which was great because it was another game that we could talk about and share, but also a curse, since I didn’t see my PSP (or my wife) for the next month. Needless to say, I was excited to get my hands on the demo of Patapon 3 in the Sony section of the E3’10 show floor without my beloved one there to steal the system.

Read more… »

It wasn’t until Tiger Woods on the Nintendo Wii that gamers realized the true potential of motion control in sports games. Now, with the Playstation Move, gamers can finally experience a high-definition golf experience with full motion control support. Toss in true 1:1 controls and you have yourself a platform that can provide a much more immersive golfing experience than the Nintendo Wii has ever dreamed of – or so one would think.

As seen yesterday, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 with the Playstation Move showed a lot of promise. However, it also showed limitations in controls due to the lack of a D-pad on the Playstation Move controller. Today, I teed off with John Daly’s Prostroke Golf – which, for an alpha E3 build, showed a lot of promise. Read more… »

If there was ever a contest for the most popular fighting game of all time, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 would be the clear cut winner in a lot of fan’s eyes. While it wasn’t particularly balanced (in fact, I think it’s the most poorly balanced fighter of all time), fans ate it up anyway with their devilishly cheap combos of Magneto/Sentinel/Storm/Spiral and Dr. Doom. A lot of those fans were on the show floor these past two days, showing their appreciation for the series.

In the largest MvsCapcom 3 booth at E3, players can compete against their peers for a T-shirt prize if they win five matches in a row. My colleagues ran into one kid who had literally been there all day long, learning the game – make no mistake, there are already dedicated fans out there, so you won’t be looking very far for an online match come release time! Read more… »

Announced yesterday, when the Xbox Slim was debuted on the show floor, was that Microsoft have finally fixed the Red Ring of Death. Yes, that’s right… After 5 years of plaguing the community, they have solved the issue behind the red lights.

Read on after the jump, for Microsoft ingenious solution.

Read more… »

The Kingdom Hearts portable iterations and I don’t really get along too well. I wasn’t really a fan of Chain of Memories, and 358/2 was really just fan-service, and the fact that it didn’t have any new worlds really ticked me off.

All of that changed when I picked up Birth By Sleep for the first time. Read more… »

When Hunted: The Demon’s Forge was first announced, it very nearly flew straight under my radar, due to the uber-generic fantasy title. Just as I was getting ready to click away from the post, a name caught my eye: Brian Fargo. Most long time gamers (at least the smart ones) give mad respect to Fargo, the one time co-founder of Interplay, who was instrumental in bringing PC classics like The Bard’s Tale and Wasteland to gamers.

Fargo’s new company, inXile, is the dev team behind Hunted, and I was very curious to find out if the brilliance behind such landmark titles could translate into success in the modern games market. After raiding the Bethesda booth for a nice sized chunk of hands-on time with the game, I’m extremely optimistic that it can.

Read more… »

When the makers of Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake bring a new title to the market, it’s easy to think that you already know what to expect: great-looking, fast, furious, circle-strafing, BFGing goodness with little else on the table. Fans of the developer would probably be content with another title in the same vein, and who can blame them? The formula has served the dev and gamers alike very well.

When I sat down to see the demonstration of Rage, I was hoping for a refinement of the FPS formula that brought the genre forward. What I got was a jump that appears to take that formula and add a whole lot more.

Read more… »

Alien conspiracies and government cover-ups shrouded in mystery, what’s not to like?  Producers Drew Smith and Harvey Whitney took me into a back room where it was set up like a 1950′s kitchen.

The stainless steal sink; the red, plastic, and metal chairs; and the vase ornaments mantled on the shelves gave the room a distinct feeling.  It was vintage, but it was uncomfortable and very eerie – A pristine environment that mirrors XCOM’s world. Read more… »

NBA Jam – we all have played it, we all have seen it, and we all remember the legends of its existence.  The over-embellished gameplay stuck to us for reasons completely unknown to anyone.  But for some odd reason, seeing our favorite players transposed into the extraordinary games made us fall in love.

Fast-forward to the present and EA is remaking the game exclusively for the Nintendo Wii.  With updated rosters and the same in your face slam dunks, NBA Jam is reason enough to get excited for the Wii’s revival. Read more… »

While our favorite hyperbolic developer, Peter Molyneux, has been uncharacteristically quiet leading up to E3’10, there has still been a steady flow of information from Lionhead studios regarding the upcoming Fable 3. The game promises to take the narrative of Fable to an even larger scope by placing the player in the role of the ruler of a kingdom, with the players alignment having far-reaching consequences for the land and its people. This type of mechanic doesn’t lend itself well to a show floor demo, so I wasn’t surprised to see that Fable 3′s E3’10 offering consisted mainly of combat sequences.

With a scant 3 months before the game goes gold in anticpation of its Oct. 26th release, the game looks well on its way to being a solid holiday release. If you’re interested in some quick thoughts on how the game played, let me drop a pile of E3 hands-on impressions in your lap. After that, I promise — Albion my way.

Read more… »

The Tomb Raider franchise has seen a steady decline in popularity over the past few entries in the franchise, but Square Enix is banking that Lara Croft as a gaming icon still has legs (ahem). With a shift from 3D, third-person puzzling and tiger shooting gameplay to a new isometric run-and-gun style, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light aims to take gaming’s most storied treasure hunter in a whole new direction.

After getting some hands-on play time in both single-player and multiplayer modes, I’m ready to share my impressions. I have to say that while this new entry in the Lara Croft universe might not revolutionize gaming in any discernible way, it looks to offer a fun experience in a new vein. I’ve got my eye on this title moving into the Summer of Arcade season for XBLA.

Read more… »

[note: It has been brought to my attention that their were factual errors in this post. Those errors have been corrected. Thank you and enjoy the E3 coverage!]

I haven’t been apart of the Civilization franchise for a long time, but Civilization IV pissed off my bladder when it haphazardly drained ten hours of my day. It’s a game that offers so much to players that building a world is possible, but like Rome, nothing can be built in a day. Because of this, newcomers may find it difficult to find the willpower and time to establish themselves as dictators or cultural icons.

But, no fear, Civilization V is here!  It offers one less roman numeral column and a bunch of tweaks to the beloved Civilization gameplay that will excite/anger veterans; and hopefully, bring in new world leaders to battle over territory and technology.

Hold on ladies and gents – there is a lot of content here.

Read more… »