"But wait I thought Left 4 Dead was an XBox/PC exclusive and Valve is not a huge fan of the PS3?" You are correct on that view. At E3 when Valve announced that there will be a sequel for this zombie-fest of a game a lot of people were a bit surprised that Valve is releasing the sequel so quickly. But is the game also going to be appearing for the PS3? According to EA official website, not only did they list the game for the PS3 as a “Coming Soon”, but also a cover art for the PS3 version of the game. Read More...

It's no secret that Blizzard has been playing around and changing dates for the epic release of Star Craft II. Well great news for fans. In a recent interview with the Swedish Press2Play.TV, Star Craft II looks to be having a Holiday release at the end of this year if things are "ready". "We don't like to ship our games unless they're ready, but we're trying our best to get it out before the end of the year" Blizzard admits. "But it's inevitably up to the fans to tell us when it's ready." When asked about the Beta, Blizzard didn't give a direct response but they did say "We're not years away... Read More...

There are the Madden purists out there, there always will be. I cannot consider myself one of them because for all of the "innovations" EA throw into the Madden games - it will always be the same experience for me. Since EA secured the NFL license, there's been false start after false start for competitors to the gridiron throne. I give all the credit in the world to Blitz: The League and the 2k series for creating some compelling gameplay, but because of either: dated gameplay and graphics, or leaning too much on novelty gameplay, they were never able to achieve the same numbers of units sold. Here's hoping BackBreaker becomes a serious contender. Read More...

Sure, Jack Tretton was all fun and games (pun totally intended) at this year's SCEA E3 Press Conference, but being pissed in front of several hundred journalists wouldn't serve any good purpose. In a recent interview with CNBC, Tretton, the CEO and president of SCEA, expressed major disappointment in the fact that many of Sony's big E3 announcements got leaked beforehand. The PSP Go!, the PS3 Motion Controller, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker (the newest MGS for the PSP) and Gran Turismo (also for the PSP, and it should be noted that it had already been announced at the 2004 E3) were all leaked before the conference. Read More...

As much as one can be in awe of the Final Fantasy XIII and XIV trailers on the giant screen at Square Enix’s booth at E3, I kept walking around to find something else.  The classic jRPG fan in me jumped for joy at the sight of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.  Already out on Wii Ware, picking up and playing Final Fantasy IV: The After Years was like running into a warm hug of an old friend.This sequel, 18 years in the making, tells the story of you, the son of the paladin Cecil and the white mage Rosa, years after the end of Final Fantasy IV.  The great evil of the second moon destroyed by Cecil and Rosa’s party in the original has returned and it is now up to you to stop this evil and return peace to the once quiet planet. Read More...

Hades went to Hell for Dante's Inferno While there isn't much I am allowed to speak about from the behind closed doors showing of EA's Dante's Inferno, there is a little I can speak on as well as show. Just incase you haven't seen the new trailer or the new shots from the game. All from a mixture of the PS3, Xbox, and PSP versions. Even though the gameplay they showed off was from the PS3 version. The graphics were to crisp to be from the PSP and XBox doesn't have a Square or Triangle button, so I figured it was safe to assume there. 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...

Ah, the Saga continues... As if Brutal Legend hasn't gone back and forth enough times, we finally start getting excited and WHAM!!! Lawsuit. If you haven't been following the drama here is a brief recap: Brutal Legend was being developed by Double Fine Studios, which at the time had contract with Vivendi Games for Publishing rights.  When the Vivendi/Activision merger happened last year the merged companies decided not to release the game. Jack Black fans around the world were crushed. 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...

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...

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...

Have you ever played Project Gotham Racing and thought to yourself, this would be awesome if I could get powerups and kill the other cars. Well so did Bizarre Creations and that's why they created Blur.I got a closed door meeting with Bizarre Creations' newest racing title, Blur. Incorporating real cars and locations with arcade power ups, Blur does just that, blurs the line between Project Gotham Racing's realistic physics with Mario Kart's arcade style powerups, Blur is an all new kind of racer. I got to play two tracks, a simple oval style racetrack laden with powerups and wide roadways, and a more urban track (Hackney area of England) with twisty turns and narrow avenues.Several car manufacturers, including Ford, GM, Renault, BMW, and Koeniggsegg (sp) all made appearances and we got assurance from Bizarre Creations's that there would be many more cars added. Read More...

Standing outside of the famous Abbey Road, I thought about all the artists that have passed through into stardom. The doors opened to a vintage theater seating, a stage and curtain and giant LCD monitors. The curtains drew revealing Studio 2 made famous by the Beatles. The instruments were cardboard cutouts and we were still in the Los Angeles Convention Center, but as Harmonix began to demonstrate their newest Rock Band offering, it was difficult to not be swept up in the melodies and harmonies of a band as influential as The Beatles. Releasing on September 9th, the disc will have 45 tracks with plenty of DLC to follow, beginning with "All You Need is Love" (time-released exclusive) on Xbox 360 and the entire album, Abbey Road. All proceeds from purchases of All You Need is Love will benefit Doctors without Borders. Read More...

APB, which stands for All Points Bulletin, is the upcoming Persistent Online Game from developer Realtime Worlds. It is a game in which players enter cities as one of two sides, an enforcer or a criminal. With up to 100 people per city, the two sides, as well as various gangs, are in a constant conflict. APB strives to make the gameplay more player driven, than game driven as with most Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. They like to consider it as a Dynamic Action Based game, not an MMO or a Role-Playing Game (RPG). Read More...