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

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

Get the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am (PS2) Trailer off WP (20mb)

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am is an epic, action-adventure combat golf, cart racing game that gives fans an opportunity to experience the Aqua Teen universe in a whole new way. When Frylock is admitted to the prestigious Jersey Pines Golf Club, Master Shake decides to show the uppity members that he is also just as good (and uppity) and deserves a place in their exclusive club. Meatwad is, of course, persuaded to join in, and the three crime-fighting food products use golf clubs and

Get the MechAssault: Phantom War Trailer off WP (12mb)

MechAssault: Phantom War brings the future of interstellar combat to today’s handheld gamers in a third-person futuristic shooter. Players assume the role of a MechWarrior, an elite fighter trained to control the ultimate war machine of the 32nd century...the BattleMech. Gamers experience fast-action, 3D ‘Mech combat on the top screen, while the lower touch screen positions them inside the cockpit at the controls.

The year is 3134 and after 60 years of peace and prosperity, the Republic of the Sphere is now living in a dark age of ex-communication. Nearly all Hyperpulse

The new action-thriller will arm gamers with the most advanced and powerful arsenal of modern day firepower to fight a new war in the world’s most treacherous hotspots.

The new action-thriller from the award-winning team at Infinity Ward, the creators of the Call of Duty® series, delivers the most intense and cinematic action experience ever. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare arms gamers with an arsenal of advanced and powerful modern day firepower and transports them to the most treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group threatening the world. As both a U.S Marine

Genre: Action RPG
Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: tri-ACE
Release Date: Q4 2005

One of the pleasant surprises about E3 was the presence of the special Radiata Stories localized demo. This game caused quite a stir when it was launched in Japan, debuting at #2 on the sales charts and receiving some astronomical review scores from Famitsu. Import fans were more divided on it; while the game was enjoyable, it was almost totally unlike anyone's expectations. A lot of the micro-management that fans expect from RPGs was simply not there, replaced with what was obviously an experiment in Western-style, open-ended gameplay

Get the Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (NDS/Wii) Trailer off WP (4mb)

Those mischievous bunnies are back in a hilarious sequel, a party comedy game that is guaranteed to be even crazier and funnier than the first with even more insane games to play. Rayman
Raving Rabbids 2 will push the envelope of the Wii gameplay experience by continuing to make innovative use of the Wii Remote. It will deliver fun, intuitive games that feature the wacky humor that Rayman and the Rabbids are known for.

"The first Rayman Raving Rabbids was a huge critical and commercial success worldwide," said

"Far Cry marked the beginning of a new era for shooters. An era of gorgeous graphics and of advanced artificial intelligence," declared Tony Key, vice president of marketing at Ubisoft. "We are confident that Far Cry 2 will have the same impact again on the FPS genre landscape."

The game is being developed for Xbox 360 by Sierra’s own Swordfish Studios, in conjunction with Massive Entertainment, also a Sierra-owned studio, to optimise gameplay for the Xbox 360 controller
and implement a new heads-up-display (HUD) that is more functional and appealing for console gamers.

World in Conflict represents the next-generation of strategy games, pitting Cold War-era superpowers against one another with completely destructible 3D battlefields, blistering visuals, and a narrowed gameplay focus that removes traditional resource-gathering and base-building in favor of non-stop combat, tactical decisions and an FPS-like addiction to intense action.

World in Conflict presents a chillingly authentic

Genre: Racing
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Pseudo Interactive
Release Date: Q4 2005

Now this will involve thinking way back, the length of which being painful for some to attempt, but think back to when you were little. Remember how you had the Matchbox cars and imagined them racing each other and doing whatever was necessary to cross the finish line first? Missiles making opponents fly into heaps of rubble, explosions, and ridiculous amounts of violence? Maybe it's just my childhood that was as strange…

In either case, Pseudo Interactive has captured that same wanton destructive glee and digitized it in the

Get the Switchball [X360/PC] trailer off WP (33mb)

Coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade late this summer and currently available for the PC on popular online gaming portals, Switchball challenges players to control an ever-changing ball along a narrow and challenging course suspended in midair. A polymorphous ball exhibits different physical characteristics as it changes form as either a standard Marbleball, a feather-light Airball, an electrically charged Powerball or a dense and powerful Metalball. Players will have to solve their way through challenging levels packed with tricky obstacles, traps and mazes. With beautifully rendered 3D environments including Skyworld, Iceworld,

JAWS, from Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg, broke all box office records to become one of the highest grossing films of its time. The movie has had a lasting impact spanning decades and now JAWS Unleashed is poised to recapture the horror of being preyed upon by the most feared creature in the ocean. JAWS Unleashed recreates scenes and character spinoffs from the movie while allowing the player to experience the JAWS universe from a unique perspective—that of the Great White Shark.

Amity Island is growing, making corporate connections with prestigious companies like Environplus to improve the Island’s economy. Unfortunately the

Genre: FPS
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Bungie
Release Date: September 25, 2007

With the multiplayer beta giving Halo 3 all the bonus buzz it would need to keep gamers at bay until September, Microsoft opted for low-key presentations at E3, keeping the game in a dark room for the huddled masses to watch (but not play). Much like the Fable 2 meeting, this was not meant as a comprehensive overview of the game — not only is Halo beyond such things, but Bungie is also attempting to keep a Grand Theft Auto level of secrecy

Genre: MMORPG/PVP
Publisher: Gamecock
Developer: Auran
Release Date: Q4 2007

One of the interesting things about the MMORPG genre is that it is, technically, a niche market. Not everyone wants to play one of them, and those who do, don't tend to play much of anything else. As World of Warcraft has recently proven, though, it is an extremely big niche, with room for hundreds of variations on the theme.

Fury is one of those variations. PVP is a big part of most MMOs, but as most of the (deeply whiny) hardcore fanbase of those MMOs would tell

Genre : Action
Publisher: SCI
Developer: SCI
Release Date: November 2005

"So," the PR agent said, "have you ever seen I’m Gonna Get You Sucka?"

That was what first got my attention about Total Overdose, because truly, that film is the Wayans brothers’ magnum opus. What kept my attention was the insanity that followed.

Total Overdose is a sort of demented cross between Robert Rodriguez’s Mexican Westerns, i.e. Desperado, and Max Payne, with a lot of room for improvisation, a Mexican hiphop soundtrack (featuring bands like Control Machete), and a lot of points for style. You begin the game as an

Get the Hellboy [PSP] Trailer off WP (9mb)

Based on the acclaimed comic book series from Dark Horse Comics, the game lets players unleash Hellboy's supernatural strength as they smash, crush and demolish their way through over six unique locations that boast fully destructible environments as they attempt to thwart an evil supernatural plot.

Drawing players into the vibrant and detailed world created by comic book legend Mike Mignola, Hellboy lets players step into the muscle bound frame of Hellboy, a hulking crimson-skinned warrior of supernatural creation. On the trail of a crazed witch, Hellboy uncovers a fiendish plot

Get the Huxley trailer off WP (80mb)

Webzen introduces Huxley for the PC and Xbox 360™, the first game to allow console players and PC players to go head-to-head in first-person shooter (FPS) battles on a massively multiplayer scale.

In a post-apocalyptic world human beings have mutated and divided into Sapiens, Alternatives and Hybrids. The Sapiens and Alternatives both battle for control of the Earth’s resources as the Hybrids, a mysterious third race, fight for their very survival. In the PC game, players take on the role of the Sapiens or Alternative. On the Xbox 360™ they enter the game as

Get the Unreal Tournament 3 [PS3/X360/PC] Trailer off WP (41mb)

Unreal Tournament 3 marks the return of the industry’s premiere first-person shooter utilizing the completely new Unreal Engine 3 technology taking the graphics, playability and challenge to a new level.

Players assume the role of a futuristic warrior engaged in contests of intense shooting battles against skilled opponents, controlled either by human contestants online or by A.I. These contests are fought with the most powerful sci-fi weapons and vehicles. It’s FPS action at it’s best!

Genre: Simulation, MMO
Developer: Wild Tangent
Publisher: Wild Tangent
Release Date: June 20, 2005

My meeting first appointment at E3 turned out to be my meeting with Wild Tangent. It was an appropriately odd start to what was a very odd week; after all, going into the meeting, I knew nothing about the developer other than a rumor about them having made an RTS played via WinAmp’s browser. It turns out that they specialize in making fairly simple PC games, the sort of stuff that you can run on basically any computer or just play online. These are the