Squirreled away in the back of the Los Angeles Convention Center’s West Hall during E3, Perfect World Entertainment showed off Runic Games’ Torchlight along with their other Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.  Only minutes after putting my hands on this little dungeon crawler had I decided this game had no business being in the back any longer.  Torchlight by Runic Games is set as a Diablo-esque dungeon-crawling Action RPG, which is actually a good thing since the people behind it are some of the same people behind Diablo and Fate.  The story is that near the small mining town of Torchlight, a rich vein of ore has been found called Ember. Read More...

In the land where Fantasy is real, and the Final chapter is never ending, Square-Enix has always been one of the main RPG makers around the world and this year at E3 they left nothing behind. During last year's E3, at the Microsoft Press Conference, Square-Enix dropped a bombshell when they announced that Final Fantasy XIII will be on the Xbox 360 (boooooo…just kidding) and it sparked the ever question of if the system itself can handle a game of that magnitude. Well at E3 2009 Square-Enix showed us all what the game would look like on the Xbox 360 for the first time. Surprisingly enough the game ran fairly well as they even showed off one of the summons from the game for the Press Conference. Read More...

Brütal Legend While Activision tries to file a lawsuit against EA over this property, we who got to go to E3 where also bombarded with this game at the major booths much like Batman Arkham Asylum. Only there was no booth all to itself for this one. Also there was no Jack Black on site pimping the game like he did at the Brütal Legend infomercial pretending to be the Video Game Awards. That all aside, I waded through the line to get my dirty and sinful little hands on this title to give it a good go before the Demo comes out. Granted, it was only my hands and eyes that got to sample any of this game. Read More...

Batman: Arkham Asylum One game that seemed to be at every one of the big companies booths, sans Nintendo, was Batman Arkham Asylum. It even had it's own booth show casing it as well as an area in the Warner Brothers booth, with leather restraint chair for those who got to bonkers while checking out this game. You might be laughing, but we had to restrain Church at one point. Well he kind of just hopped into it for some reason, but this is not the point of this article. Read More...

A new Mario game was anticipated by the crowd as we all filed into the Nintendo E3 Media Briefing last Tuesday.  Many, including myself, were looking for a new Super Mario Galaxy, which we did receive.  That was not until much later in the show.  Well before that announcement was the announcement of the New Super Mario Bros. Wii.  More of a party game than a solo adventure, though it could be played that way, New Super Mario Bros. Read More...

In mathematics, singularity theory is the study of the failure of manifold structure (yes, that is taken from wikipedia). In the game Singularity, something definitely failed, and while I'm not sure what a manifold structure is, it sounded like a cool sentence to start off with. All this aside, Raven Software's Singularity looks like one of the best shooters coming out this year. Players will control Nate Renko, an American Air Force pilot who was sent to an island called Katorga 12 to investigate why the area was emitting irregular amounts of radiation. During his investigation, however, his plane crashes on the island. Read More...

Let's be honest, while it may be a little early to be talking sequel, all of us that played Left 4 Dead could bet the house that a second incarnation was certain. On November 17th, just 364 days after the first, Valve will release Left 4 Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 and PC. Left 4 Dead 2 takes place during the same zombie outbreak as the first game, but features a new pair of 4 survivors, Rochelle, Coach, Ellis, and Nick. While it wasn't quite clear what the new campaigns were apart from the fact that it will take place in the South US (the game starts in Savannah and ends in New Orleans), Scott Dalton, a level designer on the game, said that more of the story will be explored, including the reason for the outbreak. Valve made sure to fix many complaints of the original game, and tweaks are apparent during the demo. Read More...

The boys from Bad Company are back and are in even more trouble as they face off in the cold Russian winter. While the focus of the Battlefield Bad Company series is certainly on the singleplayer campaign mode, the E3 demonstration was of a gold rush-style multiplayer map.Gold rush is essentially the same as it is from the first game, a team of attackers vs a team of defenders fighting over crates gold. While it is no longer called "gold rush" (the crates no longer contain gold) the objective is the same, secure and plant explosives on 8 crates (4 series of 2) or vice versa for the defenders.The multiplayer classes have been trimmed from 5 classes to 4 (support is no longer in the game), and while I prefer more classes (my favorite game in the series, Battlefield 2, has 7 playable classes with the option to play as the commander), I understand that it makes the game more accessible to gamers new to the series. Read More...

Get your claws out, paint your skin green and get your web slinger toys out as Activision is releasing another Marvel Ultimate Alliance game for all of us comic book geeks. As we all know Activision released the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance and overall the game was a success with a "team brawler" style game. How can Marvel top their last game with this up and coming game? By having a story base off the Civil War series that turned the Marvel universe to where it is today. Read More...

One of my surprises of the show was the game Section 8, coming from SouthPeak Games this fall. I was able to get a demo of this with the lead producer of the game. Section 8 is a futuristic sci-fi shooter with similar gameplay to that of Tribes and Battlefield 2. You have large map areas with 32 total players, two teams of 16 each. Each map has various objectives and areas your team must capture or complete to gain points for your side.As you spawn or respawn, you locate an area on the map that is a safe drop zone. Read More...

Now I could go the route that you all think I am going to go with this. Well at least the route that any who have heard our E3 podcasts and also saw the PSN Pulse interview. That is, just go all out using the flashy words, hundred dollar words, spouting awesome catch phases, being the total fan boy of this game and franchise. But you know what? I totally am going that route with this. Read More...

Unfortunately for E3, there wasn't a hands on demo for Mass Effect 2 of any kind, but we did get to see a demo played by one of the Mass Effect 2 team. The first bit of information we were told was the fact that Commander Shepherd is in fact not dead. This is further confirmed by the fact they stated Shepherd will be around for the entire trilogy, which will surely please many fans who didn't want to see all of their efforts from the first game go to waste. When the demo started, it was easy to see that this was a much darker world this time around in Mass Effect. You begin by witnessing Shepherd searching for the assassin, Thane. Read More...

There is something unforgettable about the moment you began playing Wolfenstein 3D.  Fast, furious and in your face, this title made an impact that affected the games industry forever.  For many gamers, including myself, it changed the way we played and thought about games, shooters in particular.  Fast forward 17 years and many first player shooters later, Wolfenstein is getting set up to be released by id Software and during this E3, we saw a demonstration focusing on the supernatural aspects of the game.   Once again, you assume the role of BJ Blazkowicz and it is your mission to uncover and stop the Nazi plot to take over the world. Read More...

Cooks, mathematicians and sports teams all employ a powerful weapon to achieve success in their chosen fields: formulas.  Much will be said from E3 2009 and beyond until well after the launch of the Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.  A lot of it will probably not be flattering.  Nintendo has found a graphical and stylistic formula on the Nintendo DS that is both successful and fun.At Nintendo’s booth this year at E3, I was able to avoid the long wait times associated with playing an anticipated title like The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks and go hands-on for the entire demo.  The demo was split into 3 parts: Dungeon, Boss and Train. Read More...

Entering Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins demo room, I figured it would be another sit down and watch the developer's play the game type demo. And it began in just that fashion, in which they went over the basic premise of how the Arch Demon has risen and brought along a horde of demons to help wipe out everything in the world. The developers started us off at one of the party camps, and these are mobile locations the player can set up and interact with the various characters within the party. You can give gifts or items to other characters to build your relationship. Read More...