E3 Finished!

Well that’s all folks, E3 is finished and has left us again for another year! This years E3 was actually pretty impressive, amidst rumors that E3 was dying this year seems to have been its resurrection. It announced a whole host of interesting games and unveiled some pretty impressive tech *cough* Natal *cough*

 

This years E3 showed new trailers, exclusive game footage, impressive looking demos and tons of new features we can all look forward to. Although many of the games announced had already been unveiled in advance E3 gave everyone a chance to see footage and a little more about the stories or features of the games. Like Mag the PS3 game that’s able to play 250 people in one game.

This little E3 wrap up message is just to let you, my sweet Xbox followers, get up to date and see the exciting releases.

 

This game has been talked about for AGES now and everyone is starting to feel the hype build, which is kind of a shame considering that it’s not due for release until November 09. Anyway E3 helped to show off some of the game footage as well as a cool game trailer found below and it all looks pretty impressive.

 

This is the magic!

The game’s story differs from the previous in that our new hero,  Enzio, doesn’t begin as an Assassin like Altair he chooses to become one in order to gain vengeance. Admittedly the story sounds a little clichéd but hey you play an assassin who cares? The game takes part in 1486 Italy, so since you’ll be spending some time in Venice they have added a swim feature to the game something its predecessor missed. Along your path of assassinations you make friends to help you on your quest, one of whom being Leonardo Da Vinci. His famous flying machine even features a part in one of the missions!

There are a collection of cool new things that help make this more challenging and realistic than the first this being that you can be discovered in a hiding spot, although you can also attack and stash enemies there too. Another nifty feature is that because you didn’t start your life as an assassin you have unarmed experience and can disarm your enemy using their own weapons against them.

There hasn’t been much talk about how the missions are structured but I’m sure Ubisoft have learned from their mistakes in the past and have decided to change the levels as you go through them. After all variety is the spice of life.

Another game set to tingle your excitement and get the tongues wagging is Alan Wake. Media for it has been slowly teasing itself free and E3 delivered a nice fix for all those desperately seeking a Wake hit. This included new screenshots a trailer and a short demo to play the responses to this have been positive.

The game is a psychological thriller that’s set to confuse you and make you scared to take the next step but at the same time desperate to do it. The story is about our guy here, Alan Wake, a bestselling author who hasn’t been able to write for two years. When his Wife decides to take him to an idyllic town to try and get his creative juices flowing again things take a horrible turn. Shortly after they arrive Alan’s wife disappears without a trace, in his search Alan finds a thriller story he wrote but has no memory of. As he reads the story he realizes every word is coming true and he’s trapped.

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Check out the trailer too!

As predicted E3 also brought the news that Crackdown 2 was on the way, now I’m not going to lie to you guys. I haven’t checked up on a lot of this but I did hear rumors the second game involved zombies? I’ll get back to you guys with more info as soon as I get it.

The last day of E3 also brought some new info on Bioshock 2 this was also followed by 3 extra screenshots. The news released some info on single player features letting everyone know what to expect from Bioshock 2 well, features wise anyway no story was set in stone as such. All they said was you return to Rapture 10 years after the original game, new abilities, dual wielding possibilities for both weapons and plasmids. You’ll also be playing big daddy in the second game and as you progress there are more ways to reveal the story than in the original. The multiplayer game will show off rapture before it was torn asunder by it’s crazed citizens.

The games will allow people to play in the civil war that destroyed Rapture and features completely reworked maps ready for multi player needs. All in all the game sounds pretty impressive and appears to have reworked some things to give it a more immersive game experience. At the same time they’re keeping the things that worked to avoid moving to far from what made the game great in the first place.  Check out the new screen shots.

Busy Week!

I should start by apologizing for my absence, can’t believe I neglected my baby for a week. You all have  my word it’s not going to happen again, anyway on with our gaming news! The biggest news of the week has to be the shock announcement that Atari has pulled out of E3. After the news broke rumors began to circulate about financial difficulties with the gaming giant, at first backed up by their deal with Sony over Ghostbusters, these were later confirmed by Atari’s announcement their European department was shutting down. It looks like these financial difficulties are hitting everyone hard, but could this spell the end for Atari? We’ll just have to wait and see.

 

The good guys at Ubisoft were nice enough to email me and let me know that they have now set up a splinter cell conviction site. To be honest people don’t click it expecting too much, there’s one teaser vid giving you about 30 seconds of Fisher talking. Mostly about his past and the agreement that he made with the government sounding oddly like the Bourne franchise.

Anyway it has other content set for time release so it’s worth checking out, point being the game looks set to finally be released this year. It sure will be an interesting Christmas that’s all I can say.

 

To help build the anxiety for Red Faction THQ were good enough to go ahead and announce that not only will red faction have a multiplayer feature but they’re also giving everyone a multiplayer demo. The demo will be coming out on May 21st but considering the type of game this is will a multiplayer feature be a good thing or just something to try and grab the competitive gamers interest?

Either way the demo has 2 maps, 9 weapons and a collection of other goodies so considering it’s free it’s something to stop buy the marketplace for.

 

Microsoft decided to come out and shock everyone by announcing that there will be a new premium crackdown theme available on Xbox live marketplace. A new theme isn’t worth news but considering it’s a PREMIUM theme for a game released 2 years ago that warrants attention. Now Microsoft said they were just wanting to let their fans connect with their favorite games and so created the new theme. They also said they had nothing else to announce at this time regarding future projects. My guess is Crackdown 2 will be getting unveiled at E3, do you really think we can’t connect the dots Microsoft?

I know there’s more news like mass effect and COD so I’ll be back with more info on that later!

Quick news!

Army of Two: 40th day had been announced a while back. An unexpected, and to some an unwanted, sequel to the original game. The good folks down at E.A were kind enough to write out an info sheet for the game talking about some of the things to expect and here’s what it said

“Army of Two: The 40th Day features a bigger playbook of new co-op moves that either player can use at any time, opening up new strategies and countless choices for both players. The result is a bigger, better, more organic and immersive co-op experience that lets gamers put their best two-man tactics to use whenever and wherever they want.”

A pretty impressive promise from E.A. and something they’re backing up with an impressive, in game footage, trailer of the game.

 

Sad news was announced by Eidos interactive as they confirmed the rumors that Batman Arkham Asylum has been delayed. Although they never announced a definite date of release they had said the game was slated for release in the summer of 2009. Eidos have now announced however that the game isn’t set for release until the end of summer 09. Thanks again to xboxmattyb89 for tipping me off about this unfortunate piece of news.

The people involved in the games production said this time was going to be used to best improve the game so that it’s “at the highest quality for gamers.” As one of the fan boys anxious to get my hands on this game I sure hope this is true and they’re not stalling because the games looking sketchy.

 

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is one of the most anticipated games to be announced, after the roaring success of the first game, selling over 12 million copies to date and winning multiple awards, this is one title everyone is happy to have announced. Infinity ward were even so kind as to announce a solid release date which I’m sure you all noticed at the top of this news bit.

I haven’t gotten concrete info on this baby yet and considering how far the release is I think any information at this time would be susceptible to change anyway, so I’ll wait until I get the correct details. Until then indulge yourselves with this interesting all be it uninformative teaser that’s driving gamers everywhere crazy.

One of the best looking games to be announced by Ubisoft, think I am legend but with no monsters and that’s what you have here. Unfortunately little else has been said about the game after the initial release information and interest. All Ubisoft have mentioned is that the game is a post apocalyptic game featuring a hero called Adam. The other aspects of the game such as story line, game play and features haven’t been confirmed, Ubisoft appear to be keeping their hand close to their chest on this one. The website is live but it doesn’t offer any more information other than a graphic wallpaper and trailer. The game was announced at last years E3 but nothing more has been said about it and with this years E3 quickly coming in it makes one wonder exactly what Ubisoft is doing about this game.

The trailer itself does open up some questions and gives an idea into what the game is about. The trailer starts by our hero, Adam, attempting to escape pursuers just to protect a bottle of water. amazingly enough the trailer shows the world in a wreckage and says it all appears to have happened in just 6 DAYS! That alone should wet your appetites at least your curiosity, find out for yourself check out the trailer below it’s looking good.

 

Christmas is going to be a merry one this year, as well as multiple other games being announced around this time the new splinter cell is announced. The fifth installment of the franchise seems to tie in close with the rest of the games.

This game sees you running from the government you once served in an attempt to get to the truth of who wants you dead. In order to survive you’ll need the usual stealth practices of the other games and the ability to build an underground base of allies.

These allies will help you get your hands on the cool gadgets everyone has come to love about the splinter cell games. As well as stealthy sneaking around the game includes what at first glances appears to be a pretty cool hand to hand combat system.