To complement the fast-paced basketball action, NBA ’08 introduces an all-new progression system where players earn skill and experience rewards that can be used to thoroughly customize player appearance and play styles. With an upgraded control system from last year that utilizes broader SIXAXIS functionality, gamers can engage in all-new and comprehensive gameplay movement on and off the ball. Also for this year, character models are updated with new animations, more dynamic movement, and new skin textures to give them a more realistic look. Additionally, the user interface has been significantly revamped to incorporate a retro NBA look and feel

Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: iRem
Release Date: June 30, 2009

Steambot Chronicles has become a significant series for Atlus. It's not a massive property that defines the company, like Shin Megami Tensei, but it's certainly a nice series that has a significant fandom. If what I saw was any indication, the PSP release of Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament should turn out to be fairly satisfying for fans.

Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament is slightly smaller in scale than other games in the series; it only encompasses one very large town and the areas around it. In a

Get the Heavenly Sword [PS3] Trailer off WP (32mb)

Emotionally charged, stunningly beautiful, and delivering unprecedented dramatic character performance, Heavenly Sword showcases the power of PS3. A dramatic tale of revenge sees Nariko, a fiery red-haired heroine, embark on a quest for vengeance against an invading King and his army. The story builds around the ancient Heavenly Sword, which once belonged to a powerful deity. It can never be wielded by a mortal without it slowly but inevitably draining their life-force.

When the invading King (played by Andy Serkis) destroys the warrior clan that guards the Heavenly Sword, the clan leader’s

Combining Ratchet & Clank’s adventure roots with an epic storyline and immersive gameplay, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction draws players into a vast, new galaxy more vibrant, diverse and interactive than ever before. With bustling cities, gigantic enemies and giant boss battles, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction delivers a sophisticated, yet humorous adventure for fans of all ages.

After saving countless planets from dreadful doom and earning intergalactic mega-celebrity status in the process, Ratchet and Clank have taken some well-deserved R&R -- again. Yet, Ratchet remains restless. An orphan of the universe, he has never known anything

Genre: Puzzle
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Blitz Game Studios
Release Date: June 2009

Atlus Software is starting to break into the casual space with several of their recent releases, such as manic puzzler Puchi Puchi Virus. However, one of their latest works breaks into the grand tradition of slow-paced, ultra-casual games meant to relax and inspire just the right amount of thinking. I spent some time at E3 demoing the PlayStation 3 and iPhone versions of Droplitz, but it's also coming to the Xbox 360 and PC.

Droplitz is a fairly basic puzzle game, somewhat reminiscent of PopCap's

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Publisher: Phantom EFX
Developer: 8Monkey Labs
Release Date: TBA

Time travel and its paradoxical twists have always been popular tools for fiction to use as convenient foils in wrapping up loose threads or in creating new ways in which to create the same. The adventure game Timequest, from now-defunct developer Legend Entertainment, casts you as a time agent sent back to pivotal moments in history in order to correct subtle changes that another renegade agent had left behind. The Journeyman Project series had also explored the same approach, and in both, you could screw

Genre: Role-Playing
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Chunsoft
Release Date: Q1 2010

Mystery Dungeon: Shiren The Wanderer was a roguelike for the Nintendo DS, with most of the trappings thereof (when a character dies, all items are lost, etc.) The game has had several console releases in Japan, and now the third is coming to the U.S. for the Wii. At E3, they were showing attendees a demo of the Japanese game and explaining everything to those who were interested.

The basics of Shiren the Wanderer are your standard roguelike. The game even features two difficulty levels, with a hardcore mode

Genre: Role-Playing
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Release Date: October 2009

Stealth and adrenaline-soaked action are part of the spy genre's hallmarks, whether it is in trying to stop nuclear annihilation in Metal Gear or in slipping past enemy security by climbing along the outside of a cruise ship in Splinter Cell. Obsidian Entertainment is now set to shake up these conventions with a spy-based RPG that includes the combat, stealth, and plenty of options to allow a player to mix James Bond and Jason Bourne into the ultimate black ops agent.

While most spy games only have

Atlus U.S.A. has secured the North American publishing rights for Demon's Souls, a groundbreaking PS3 exclusive action RPG experience. Beautiful, compelling, and unforgiving, Demon's Souls is the hardcore RPG experience PS3 fans have been waiting for.

Genre: Shooter
Publisher: City Interactive
Developer: City Interactive
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2009

Shooting should be one of the most generic genres on the Wii. Just look at all the gun-shaped items that have already been sold, and consider that some of the Wii's gem titles have included House of the Dead games. But the more I think about it, I haven't seen that many. As City Interactive's most complete game that isn't near release date yet, Redneck Chicken Riot is odd, perhaps inspired by Wallace & Gromit, but with a confusing idea of its very own.

The game is a pretty

Genre: Role-Playing
Publisher: Nippon Ichi Software
Developer: Ride On
Release Date: July 1, 2009

Before we go any further, let's listen to that little voice of Robin in our heads. You know you want to. Now, wonder who at Atlus decided this would be a name to trademark. Imagine that the title fits the actual game just enough to be even more hilarious. Just three minutes convinced me that Atlus has invested wisely in a game that truly captures its name like few other games on market. I mean, a lot do better and a lot

Genre: Sports
Developer: Hudson
Publisher: Hudson
Release: Q4 2009

Sports-based mini-game collections might be the most specific genre you can get to on the Nintendo Wii and still find a metric ton of competing products. Wii Sports, Big League Sports, EA Playground and, of course, Deca Sports are just a few examples of the area and how crowded it can be. Now, Hudson's giving its work a sequel with Deca Sports 2, and they were showing it off at E3.

Fortunately, they've added several new ideas to the series to match with the 10 new games. Not only will

In Warhawk, players experience the thrill of white-knuckle aerial combat with hundreds of enemy fighters, bone-crunching armored assaults and high-intensity infantry combat in a massive, all-out war fought both on the ground and in the skies.

During gameplay, players are tasked with protecting their homeland from the invading Chernovan armada. By doing so, players take command of the most advanced war machine in the fleet, the Warhawk, capable of aerobatic dogfights at high speeds or hovering over ground troops providing tactical support. Players continue the battle on foot with an arsenal of weaponry including pistols, rifles, grenades and more.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom pits Capcom's iconic characters against Tatsunoko Production's anime superheroes. This clash of heroes face off in two-on-two battles for the ultimate 2D tag-team battle. During the E3 madness, we sat down with Capcom's senior communications director, Chris Kramer.

WP: Who has the honor to speak with us? State your name, rank, and occupation!

I'm Chris Kramer, and I'm the senior director of communications and community at Capcom.

WP: One of the big announcements for E3 was the fact that Tatsunoko vs. Capcom is coming to the U.S. and Europe. What was it like getting that brought over? We kept hearing

From the creative team that brought you the Daxter on the PSP, Santa Ana-based Ready At Dawn Studios and Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Santa Monica Studios bring you God of War®: Chains of Olympus for the PSP system. Developed from the outset as an original story, God of War: Chains of Olympus delivers highly detailed graphics, incredible animation detail and yet another adventure in the dark and brutal world of Greek mythology that fans of the God of War franchise have come to know and love.

In God of War, Kratos, after being deceived into killing his wife and daughter, denounced

Get the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune [PS3] Trailer off WP (40mb)

Developed by the studio that brought blockbuster hit franchises Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter to PlayStation fans, Naughty Dog Inc.’s, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the first game in a new fast-paced action-adventure franchise developed exclusively for the PS3.

Taking full advantage of the power of PS3, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is developed using proprietary technology that promises to impress players with incredibly realistic characters and lifelike environments. Building on its legacy of extraordinary storytelling, Naughty Dog has created an elaborate plot that will have players guessing at every turn.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,

Genre: Puzzle/Platformer
Publisher: Nobilis
Developer: Frozenbyte
Release Date: July 2009

On the surface, Trine is not a difficult game to understand, as it is essentially a puzzle game in which you can switch on the fly between three varied characters. However, the basic puzzle mechanics and characters are mere underpinnings for the meat of the physics-based gameplay and cooperative play. The co-op was not present in our preview build, but the physics most definitely are, along with a surprisingly developed theme and production values for a puzzle title.

The three characters in Trine all have varied roles and

Get the Folklore [PS3] Trailer off WP (9mb)

Developed by Tokyo’s Game Republic under legendary game creator Yoshiki Okamoto, executive producer for Onimusha, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil, Folklore is a unique, dark fantasy adventure inspired by western fairy tales and built to showcase the power of PS3. Set in the mysterious town of Doolin, two strangers, Keats and Ellen, are drawn together to uncover a mysterious legend in a remote village that exists on the border between dreams and reality. They soon learn that the town serves as a gateway to fantastic realms, full of creatures, spirits and