I’m not big into RTS or MMOs because I think they’re a waste of time. Nicholas and VV used to hound me about joining WoW, but I refused every single time. AT E3, however, Relic/THQ opened up my eyes to something new and exciting, Dawn of War II. I was sort of tricked into thinking that it wasn’t an RTS because it wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. Correct me if I’m wrong, RTS fanboys, but I hadn’t seen any other game where you could build up your separate platoons with all sorts of kick ass weaponry before going into battle. I’ll have to get a PC rig before the game launches next year and I’m OK with that. The game looks amazing. One more trailer with gameplay footage after the jump.

I may have been a little harsh on the Borderlands demo I was given at E3, but what do you expect when they show you Bioshock before hand? Anyway, here’s the trailer and it’s well put together, but most trailers are. We’ll be on the look out for gameplay footage and you can be the judge.

If you’ve been paying attention to our E3 coverage you’ll have noticed that most of the trailers we posted show actual in-game scenes along with perhaps something more compelling than still images of men in gas masks and Duke Nukem’s animated box art.

If you’ve been following the Duke Nukem saga you’ll remember that the original game came out eleven years ago and a follow-up, Duke Nukem Forever has been “coming soon” ever since. For Apogee to promise some sort of mobile game pack and have no screens or even renders available insane. Ah well, Duke Nukem Forever be out soon, so there’s nothing to worry about.

Bonus: Here is what I was thinking while I watched it. I feel your experience may be similar.

00:00 – 00:30 – Oh, cool. Duke Nukem. Cool music. I remember that game.
00:31 – 01:24 – Wow. Three titles. That looks cool.
01:25 – 02:10 – So it’s a trilogy. I get it. Who are those gas mask guys?
02:11 – 02:54 – What the hell is going on here? Why are they saying it’s a trilogy again?
02:55 – 04:00 – Seriously. Is that the best they could do? That’s their trailer? Apogee sucks.

There you have it: from vague interest to hatred in four minutes. That, my friends, is what you call marketing.

via BBG

Oh yeah, baby. I’m going to beat this mother in one sitting no matter what. I’m really glad they went back to about the Mega Man 2 era in terms of skills and enemies since that’s the era I rock. I’m going to play some Mega Man tonight with “Eye of the Tiger” on in the background to get ready for this.

No clue what this game is about, but it looks interesting.

Here’s the quick rundown on this 20+ minute video.

Rock Band guitars and drums will be compatible with GH:WT. Brand new guitar with a dedicated Star Power button. Longer strum bar. Slider bar on the neck that’s touch sensitive: tap strum and a wah-wah effect. Non-Guitar Hero guitars can be played up on the frets without actually strumming. Drums are precise and allows real drummers to just close their eyes and smack away. The drum heads have a thicker layer of silicon to reduce noise, but give a bit of feedback for rolls. A y-splitter let’s you play with two kick drums. MIDI in-jack allows for real drum kits or beat boxes or whatever else. Logitech microphone that’s wired to reduce latency. Travis Barker says the ease of use on the drums is great for right or left handed drummers and it’s super realistic. There’s also a live performance by the Neversoft team.

This one is for the PS3 fanboys. We really do love you guys.

Update: It appears that the few minutes I missed at the beginning of my 2K briefing regarding Bioshock was about the PS3 version. Looks like “Challenge Rooms” are exclusive to the Sony platform. Lame. But cool for PS3 owners.

“For the last several months, we’ve been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on,” studio President Harold Ryan wrote. “We were looking forward to sharing that with our fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were changed by our publisher.”

“Publisher” being Microsoft. So why would Microsoft leave such a heavy hitter out of their press conference? Click on for some details on this debacle.

If you’ve got a goose that lays golden eggs, why would you kick it out of the coop just before the neighbors come to see? (I know, it’s a pretty awful metaphor, but bear with me) Well, maybe you’d do it if you’ve got two other golden geese to show anyway, and maybe that first goose is getting a little ruffled. See, Microsoft had Gears 2 there for their big sequel news, and then they had the jaw-dropping announcement that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming to the 360 as well. With those two they had a knockout combo, and as their presentation was already running over two hours, they decided to save that third goose for when things get dull.

Can you blame them? It’s bad for us — who doesn’t want to find out what Bungie has cooking? — but it’s sound business practice. If they’d known how unremarkable stuff was going to be at E3 this year (I mean it was nice but nothing crazy), they might have chosen otherwise and really stood above the crowd, but at least they’re manning up and saying “Yeah, we did it, and we did it because we don’t need the Halo effect any more.” I guess you have to give them some credit for that.

Nothing solid from Bungie yet, but I’m sure they’ll use this time to polish and tweak whatever it was they were going to drop on us, and then start the counter over again. please be Marathon

Activision chose not to participate in E3, but they still made their presence felt in LA by holding their own press conference off site. They covered a handful of titles that included Guitar Hero: World Tour (details on this coming later today), Quantum of Solace, Spider Man: Web of Shadows, Wolfenstein and Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion. Regard the latter, Activision gave a tiny tidbit that’s pretty cool. You can fuse together super hero powers to make some ginormously awesome super power.

But you want to know more about Call of Duty: World at War, right? Here are a few of the major facts in case you can’t watch videos right now. Kiefer Sutherland will be voicing over one of the main characters. There will be 4-player co-op as well as two-player split screen. Everything was built off of the COD4 engine, so you know it’s going to kick some major ass. The video shows off a trailer and actual gameplay footage from two-player split screen. Enjoy.

iD Software is everywhere these days. At least it seems like they are. Anyway, Activision and iD showed off a new Wolfenstein trailer at E3 for all the major platforms.

This game needs no introduction. Here’s a snippit of actual gameplay for the upcoming XBLA title.

Due to time constraints we weren’t able to see the actual demo for MadWorld, but if this trailer is any indication into how the actual game will be then you can sign me up. A gory game like this for the Wii should be pretty entertaining. Check out the European trailer here.

I was one of the fans of RF 1 and 2, which surprised the developers (mainly the part about 2 — I told them it was fun but “comprimised”). So when I saw the Red Faction Guerrilla logo on the wall I went nuts; after all, a modern development environment allows for so much more in the form of realistic destruction. And that’s exactly what was demoed to us.

Almost everything is destructible, except ironically the landscape, which makes sense gameplay-wise since you’re no longer in a mine. Every building is made of cement, steel, and mortar, and can be taken down with a few well-placed charges, a rocket to the lobby, or even your trusty (and ridiculously powerful) sledgehammer. The building deformation looks great; this is truly a revolutionary step in destructible environments. I just finished Crysis and while that had some good blowin’ up, this is far beyond it.

The game has an open world, full of little missions, activities, and stumble-upon events. Or you can grab a vehicle and cruise around looking for new buildings to smash. If it sounds a little 2-dimensional, it’s — well, it’s not really, but seriously blowing stuff up in this game is just so damn fun that you can easily forget about the other things you can do. Of course, since they built the whole game around destruction, it’s also integrated with the missions and gameplay itself; it’s not just window dressing. But believe me, once you get your hands on a demo or something, you’ll be sitting there laughing like an idiot as you make some random structure come crashing down around you.

Anyway, you play as Michael Thornton to help stop some international catastrophe from occurring that would doom us all according to the game’s description. Taking a quick look at my notes, I can tell you just a few things about actual gameplay since we were limited to what they wanted to show us. One of the features that I thought was unique was the real-time decision making process. For example, when you approach an individual you’re given a list of actions that you can proceed with, like killing them, talking to them, etc. The further along you are in some form of dialogue your options vary based on your previous actions and what’s being told to you. Another feature I really liked was Chain Shots, which allows you to string together multiple shots on multiple enemies before you start firing. The process slows down for a few seconds to allow you to do this.

Alpha Protocol is set to launch in February of 2009 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

The next Sega title that I had a chance to demo was Sonic Unleashed. My very first personal console was the original Sega Genesis and one of the games I had was Sonic, so this game is near and dear to me. The upcoming Sonic title looked great and I especially liked the different views that are given to the player. Depending on the buildings and surroundings you switch from an over the shoulder view to 3D to side scrolling for stellar gameplay. The hog can run upwards of 300MPH dubbed Sonic Boost if his ring count is high enough. When jumping from one particular building to another you’re given a combo move mid-flight that will take you to the top with a ring bonus or down to the bottom where you’ll have to work your way up to get across to the next building. During nighttime levels you turn into WareHog. At least, I think this happens during all nighttime levels. When you’re in WareHog mode you lose your sonic speed, but in return you gain super strength and the ability to extend your arms like Inspector Gadget. I can’t wait to get my hands on this when it launches this November for the PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

As far as we know and to THQ Wireless’ knowledge we’re the first with any sort of footage for the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and here it is for all of you readers. It’s a very cool game and an ingenious way of using the touchscreen. The accelerometer is only used to switch gameplay from landscape to portrait at any time. It’s still a work in progress and won’t be released until September 16, but we didn’t notice any glitches. I can say without a doubt that this is going to be a hot, hot game for the iPhone/iPod platform. Enough yapping. Enjoy the video.

Hey folks. I know some of you have been looking forward to SC4, so here’s a rather lengthy video for you to watch when you have some time. I tried to get the Namco folks to show me everything possible, but they were being a bit sheepish about it, so I got what I could. Also, there’s gameplay footage of the Apprentice from the upcoming Force Unleashed as well as Vader’s fatality move. Enjoy.

Talk Delta to me, baby

So when after I conned my way into their special little meeting rooms (no appointment, heh), the first thing I saw was Tom Clancy’s EndWar. Sounded familiar, and when I entered the little space I was disappointed: “Oh yeah, some RTS in the Tom Clancy universe, whatever.” But I sat down and in a moment I realized that this was that game where you freaking talk to your units. You don’t have to, of course, you can do everything with your controller or keyboard, but as soon as the demo guy showed me how it worked, I couldn’t see any other way to go about it. The voice commands work perfectly, quickly, and are versatile and powerful. “Deploy gunships! Unit two, move to bravo. Group 3, attack hostile 4.” It really works and you feel cool, not nerdy, when you’re doing it. Well, maybe a little nerdy.

In addition to the voice command thing, there were two enjoyable aspects about EndWar. First, your units gain experience (and so get better) and you gain money to spend on a bunch of upgrades for them. Love that. Second, the online play is based on a world map where depending on what side you play for and the outcome, the global map which everyone chooses games from will shift and change according to the balance of power within the game. Awesome work on this one, I have to say.

Pretty in Persia

Next I snuck into the Prince of Persia booth. I’ve always liked the PoP games so I was probably biased to begin with, but it’s hard not to like something that looks like this:

It really does look that gorgeous, and I can’t wait to see it in high res on my monitor. The acrobatics are enhanced by a claw which allows for new movements on walls and a mystical companion (“Elika”) who saves you occasionally and also lets you double jump. The combat is, as you’ve heard, redesigned to be entirely one-on-one, and it looks like most battles in the game will be more like boss battles than anything else. Looks amazing.

Hot death and a gun buddy

Next I went over to Far Cry 2. I just finished Crysis (finally) so I was ready for more of the same. And that’s kind of what I got.

It looks fantastic, obviously. The desert environment is rendered very well and the barren nature of it makes for different fundamental tactics. When the demo guy died, an NPC friend (who you choose at the beginning) comes and helps you up, shoots his way out with you hanging senseless off him, and gives you his extra gun after you knife the bullets out of you (in-game, ouch). It’s a cool way of having you not die, although apparently your friend can, and if he does, no revive for you! Another excellent feature, not documented in screenshots, is the way fire catches and spreads all over. It’s a dry climate and everything’s made out of wood, so a single molotov cocktail can annihilate an entire enemy stronghold.

We have a winner!

I don’t think it’s premature to say that these three games basically were a knockout for Ubisoft. There were some cool things which I’ll be writing up shortly, but the combination of these three high-quality, innovative, high-production-value titles really put Ubisoft ahead of the pack this year. If one has piqued your interest, check your favorite games site for more info.

We already posted about Nyko’s newest intercoolers for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and they’re pretty dope looking, so I just wanted to get some hands-on photos for you guys. The PS3 media hub that was announced the other week is clean, simple and sits flush with the system. You wouldn’t ever know it was an add-on attachment. Nyko makes great accessories that are economical and perfect all major console platforms. Can’t wait to review the new intercooler for my overheating Xbox 360 Elite. Gallery after the jump.

One more after the jump.

Project Origin was pretty impressive. What you’re looking at is pretty much F.E.A.R. evolved, and in a more open space. The developers said there was corridor fatigue from the first game so they moved things out onto the streets. Looked pretty scary. Graphics were good, lots of good post effects. And as I was reminded during the demo, these are the guys who made Shogo, so that made the “powered armor” you get to try on even more awesome. It was pretty immersive and you felt like quite a badass. Regenerating health and iron sights round out the new stuff.

I also played this Guinness World Records game which was actually kind of corny but seemed like a fun party game. It’s for the Wii, and it’s essentially a bunch of minigames based on real world records and you go up against them. It keeps track of your scores and compares them on a global level so you can see just how much better they are in Japan. I played this arcade shooter-like minigame and the PR people were freaked out by how good I was; apparently I outscored everyone there by a huge margin.

Lego Batman was there and it’s what you’ve been seeing all along.

I then went over to Valve’s modest little spot for a bit of Left 4 Dead. I’m in a hurry so I’ll just tell you it’s awesome and it gets really intense when you’re doing well and it starts throwing lots of zombies at you. It can get pretty freaky too. The zombies are pretty weak individually, but once they start pouring out you get this “Oh god oh god” feeling in your stomach and you (if you’re me) start crying out to your teammates stuff like “Oh shit, guys, quick, go to the – oh no! Turn around! OH NOOO!” Fun times.