Archives by Day

Advertising

As an Amazon Associate, we earn commission from qualifying purchases.





'Hotel Dusk: Room 215' (NDS) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

Los Angeles, 1979. Players take the role of Kyle Hyde, an ex-cop turned salesman trying to track down a missing friend. Clues lead to an eerie, old hotel rumored to have one very strange room – a room where wishes are granted. Players check in and get ready for a night of surprises as they meet a cast of unusual characters and try to unravel the mystery in Hotel Dusk: Room 215, a gritty new graphic adventure for the Nintendo DS.

  • Players hold their Nintendo DS like a book and use the touch screen to grill characters, search for

'Hard to be a God' - Screens & Trailer

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2006 May 12th

Get the Hard to be a God trailer off WP (40mb)

The role-playing game Hard to Be a God is based on the book of the same name by the Strugatsky Brothers. The contradiction between Monks and The Grey grows into a total civil war where “everyone is in opposition to each other”. Arkanar separates from the Empire, which decides to alter the situation. For a start, it tries to ferret out the situation in Arkanar and sends spies there. The main character, a graduate of a secret elite school, is one of them. His task is to

'Guild Wars: Factions' - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

Guild Wars Factions is the highly anticipated follow-up to Guild Wars®, the critically acclaimed online roleplaying game that revolutionized online gaming with its fresh design, innovative technology and no-subscription-fee pricing.

Developed by Seattle-based studio ArenaNet, Guild Wars Factions takes place on the Asian-inspired continent of Cantha, where new and existing Guild Wars players join an epic quest to defeat an ancient evil and save a war-torn empire.

Players create a character from eight distinct professions—including the newly created Assassin and Ritualist—and become embroiled in a brutal war of conquest between two warring factions, the Luxons and the Kurzicks.

New missions will

'Exteel' - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

NCsoft’s Team Beam puts you in command of a next generation mech – called an NxG – a humanoid, walking weapon. On Exteel’s futuristic battleground, giant robots are the key to ultimate victory.
Players create a mercenary pilot who grows in experience and rank through PvP battles. Each pilot can customize his or her personal mech using a robust character creation tool. Ultimately, pilots can store several different mechs in a “hangar” and choose which one to take into combat.

The game features easily accessible gameplay in a blend of high-speed tactics and team-based strategy. The animation for the

'The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass' (NDS) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

The epic story of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker continues as Link finds himself lost and alone in unknown seas in a new adventure. Featuring intuitive touch-screen controls and innovative puzzles, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass offers new challenges for fans of the series and an easy-to-grasp introduction for gamers new to The Legend of Zelda. But time grows short, and only the Phantom Hourglass can buy Link the minutes he'll need to survive.

  • The stylus makes controlling Link easier than ever. Tap on the screen to make Link move, or sweep the stylus around him

'Super Paper Mario' (NGC) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

The newest chapter of the Paper Mario story isn't just out of this world … it's out of this dimension.

  • What at first glance appears to be a 2-D sidescroller ripped straight from the pages of the Paper Mario universe soon turns into a 3-D action-adventure that defies all video game logic. Fusing 2-D and 3-D perspectives, not to mention

'Metroid Prime 3: Corruption' (Wii) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

If you think you knew what it felt like to be the bounty hunter behind the visor, think again. Take aim at evil with Nintendo's revolutionary controller.

  • Players control Samus by moving with the Nunchuk controller and aiming with the pointer, allowing for a level of immersion unlike anything they have ever experienced. Through the eyes of Samus, players experience a quantum leap in first-person control as they wield the Wii Remote, the ultimate device for the firstperson shooter genre.
  • Samus will employ well-known power-ups like the Grapple Beam and Morph Ball, as well as a bunch of new surprises,

Xbox Preview - 'Conker: Live and Reloaded'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Genre : Action
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Rare
Release Date: June 21, 2005

The first time I saw Conker: Live & Reloaded was at Microsoft’s pre-E3 conference in 2004. I will remember it for a long time, if for no other reason than I’d never seen a cartoon dog’s head explode before.

Conker is back. It is still gleefully offensive.

The singleplayer portion of our show is a fully remastered version of the infamous Conker’s Bad Fur Day, an N64 platformer that should not, by rights, exist. It starts with Conker, a somewhat generically cartoony squirrel, getting horrifically drunk and passing out

PC Preview - 'F.E.A.R.'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Genre: FPS
Publisher: VU Games
Developer: Monolith
Release Date: September 7, 2005

Pre-order 'F.E.A.R.': PC

E3 is a very loud place, and it’s hard to appreciate a game like F.E.A.R. properly when you’re seeing it there for the first time. While Doom 3 flirted with some survival horror conventions, F.E.A.R. is an outright horror FPS. Instead of just using low light conditions to build a sense of terror, F.E.A.R. goes the extra mile and has your character periodically overwhelmed with nightmarish visions of floating phantoms and seas of blood. There’s also a creepy sense of sound to

'Paraworld' - Screens & Trailer

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - E3 2006 May 12th

Get the Paraworld trailer off WP (60mb)

ParaWorld is real-time strategy game set in a parallel world between a prehistoric world, where warring tribes and dinosaurs rule, and our world in the 19th century. Using an unprecedented unit management user interface called the “Army Controller,” players play a campaign, where they get to know and play three different tribes (Norsemen, Dustriders and Dragon Clan). As they advance in the campaign, players get to play all three tribes, but in the last third of the game they need to pick the best tribe for the level they are facing. If the

'Super Mario Galaxy' (Wii) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

The ultimate Nintendo hero is taking the ultimate step … out into space. Join Mario as he ushers in a new era of video games, defying gravity across all the planets in the galaxy.

  • Shake, tilt and point! Mario takes advantage of all the unique aspects of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, unleashing new moves as players shake the controller and even point at and drag items with the pointer.
  • Mario essentially defined the 3-D platforming genre with Super Mario 64, and this game proves once again that he is king. Players perform mind-bending, lowgravity jumps across wild alien

PC Preview - 'Parkan II'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Genre: Space Sim
Publisher: 1C Company
Developer: Nikita
Release Date: Q3 2005

This is why you shouldn’t provoke developers. Actually, to be more accurate, this is exactly why you should.

During E3, we got a chance to sit down with 1C and view a slew of upcoming titles they will be publishing in the near future, one of which being the space sim Parkan 2. Not many people have heard of the title, and to be frank I only knew the name and the look as I sat down. As the title was demonstrated, I was told the game overall

PC Preview - 'Dragonshard'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Genre: RPG/RTS
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Liquid Entertainment
Release Date: Summer 2005

One of the weirder revelations coming out of this year's E3, if you're as big a damn nerd as I am – and you aren't, so don't even try to step to this – is that the new Dungeons & Dragons PC games -- Dungeons & Dragons Online and Dragonshard -- are set on, of all places, Eberron.

This is one of the few memorable campaign settings to come out since D&D's third edition hit shelves, because it is, in a way, a fantasy world taken to its natural

'The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' (NGC/Wii) - Features, Screens & Trailer

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

Get The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [NGC/Wii] E3 2006 Trailer off WP (17mb)

Wii

When an evil darkness enshrouds the land of Hyrule, a young farm boy named Link must awaken the hero – and the animal – within.

  • When Link travels to the Twilight Realm, he transforms into a wolf and must scour the land with the help of a mysterious girl named Midna. Using the power and unique control of the Wii console, The
  • Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess features incredibly precise aiming control using the Wii Remote.
  • The Wii Remote and the Nunchuk controller are used for a

PS2 Preview - 'Kingdom Hearts II'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Square-Enix
Release Date: TBA

One of the titles I anticipated most before this year's E3 was Kingdom Hearts II, which picks up the story a year after Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The Heartless are back once again, but so are Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Some of the supporting characters from the original game have returned, as well as a few new friends.

For me, Kingdom Hearts was always about two things: the gameplay, and the joy of seeing the Square-Enix characters working with the Disney characters. As far as gameplay goes, a lot of

PS2/Xbox/X360 Preview - 'The Godfather'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Redwood Studios
Release Date: Fall 2005

They all just make it look so easy, don't they? The mob, that is. Control of underground criminal activities, a reach that spans cities, the power to make or break lives within minutes, manpower to call their own … oh, yeah, it's incredible.

Most movie mobs, however, don't show you the nitty-gritty side of things, just the raids and the gunshots and the thick accents. But what about getting there? Isn't that half the fun?

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were organized crime empires. There's

'God of War II' (PS2) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

In 2005, Sony Computer Entertainment America's Santa Monica Studios introduced GOD OF WAR, which was widely considered the best videogame of 2005 with over a dozen "Game of the Year Awards." In Q1 of 2007, Kratos, the ex-Spartan warrior turned God of War, returns in GOD OF WAR II, exclusively for the PlaysStation 2. Armed with all-new brutal combat moves and magic, players retake the role of Kratos and embark on a new epic adventure to change the fate of mortals and Gods alike. As Kratos, players will travel through unique levels of exceptionally detailed and vividly striking

PS2 Preview - 'Beatmania'

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Post - E3 2005

Beatmania

Genre: Puzzle/Rhythm
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: TBA

Konami has finally started bringing their music games stateside, which means that we gaming fiends can finally experience Beatmania. I'm hoping that this will start a trend, forcing Namco to import more Taiko goodness, and Konami to bring over DrumMania and Guitar Freaks.

For those who are new to Beatmania, the game is Konami's version of deejaying. It plays like Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of using your feet, you are using your hands to hit the keys of their deejay controller, basically a turntable and seven buttons. At the Konami booth, they

'Motorstorm' (PS3) - 9 New Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

Related articles, Click here!

'SingStar' (PS3) - Features & Screens

by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under E3 - Pre - E3 2006

Take centre stage and wow the crowd with your performance as SingStar arrives on PLAYSTATION®3. Packed with new features, for the first time ever SingStar lets you personalise your playlists by downloading the songs of your choice – so you can sing along to what you want, when you want it.

Customise your SingStar experience by downloading the latest tracks and menu skins from the SingStore (an in-game shop that is easy to use and accessible directly from in-game), set the world alight by uploading your best performances to the online SingStar community and go wild with superstar moves with the