Fatal Inertia is the dynamic opening salvo from Koei's brand new Canada studio. With a distinctly Western flair, this game represents the first step into an all-new genre for Koei. Fatal Inertia presents the stunning contrast of vibrant, futuristic vehicles battling and racing in a variety of beautiful, natural environments. There are a wide range of physics-based weapons, and you'll discover new ways to use them every time you play. Harnessing the power of the PlayStation 3, this game offers a physics engine that is core to the gameplay, and that offers complete interaction between vehicles, weapons, and

Genre: Action
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Epic Games
Release Date: TBA

After our single-player demo with CliffyB, it's time to go hands-on with Gears of War. Deep behind closed doors at Microsoft's E3 booth, we walked into a large room that had two groups of eight Xbox 360s decked out with the limited-edition GoW faceplate and networked together for some four-on-four team-based deathmatch action. We first got an overview of the game controls and some basic tactics from the Epic Games team, and then we were off on our own for some intense multiplayer action.

The default button

Genre: Action
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Release Date: September 2005

Although not one of our most-anticipated games of 2005, Far Cry Instincts' move to the console from the PC could be a very exciting addition to the Xbox roster. In a move to bring the game to console, Ubisoft is committed to the arduous task of making Far Cry look as good on the Xbox as it does on the PC.

Given the constraints of the Xbox as compared to your costly gaming PC, Ubisoft has indeed taken up the challenge, and from what we see at this point,

Genre: MMORPG
Publisher: Mythic Entertainment
Developer: Mythic Entertainment
Release Date: Q4 2005

The expansion is geared towards high level characters — you will need to be at least level 50 to start the new Champion quests. These quests will give you a new epic weapon (one per class) and allow you to choose some sub specialties from other classes. While these are not expected to be massively game changing — "Your warrior will not become a battle healer," says Sanya Weathers, Mythic's Internet Relations Manager, "We have a class that does that already called a cleric." — Mythic does acknowledge

Genre: Racing Combat
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Pseudo Interactive
Release Date: Fall 2006

Fuller Auto

If you're a fan of the first Full Auto, the Xbox 360 combat racer that arrived earlier this year to mixed, but positive-leaning reviews, you have reason to look forward to this fall – if you're also saving up for a PlayStation 3. The sequel, Full Auto 2: Battlelines, as of the last day of E3 2006, is set to be a PS3 exclusive. After some developer face-time and about 15 minutes of hands-on multiplayer combat at E3, I can say that Battlelines will

The game is set in Soleanna, the beautiful city of water. In his first adventure set in the human world, Sonic meets a beautiful princess named Elise, whom he quickly befriends, but Princess Elise is abducted by none other than the calculating Dr. Eggman who is working under dark and sinister motives,to destroy this special kingdom of hers. In order to restore safety and serenity, Sonic must maneuver his way through a series of adventures and challenges where he will encounter and interact with a bevy of allies and enemies, and ultimately go head to head against the menacing doctor

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Irrational
Release Date: 2007

It's been long enough that quite a few gamers have never heard of the System Shock games, two benchmark PC games that set the bar for challenging FPSes and, in their own way, for survival horror. When you hear older gamers talking about SHODAN or crawling through hallways with only a wrench to defend themselves, they're referring to the arguably classic System Shock 2.

(It's also unfortunately out of print. Would it be too much to ask that somebody run off another batch of those?)

Bioshock is a

Genre: Fighting
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Developer: Namco Bandai
Release Date: Q3 2006

This year's E3 featured an astounding number of PSP titles that were just plain fun to play, which is something that the handheld console has been lacking until now. Tekken: Dark Resurrection was among those titles, and it was perhaps the single game I put in the most time with during E3. While it is largely a straight port of the limited arcade release by the same name, T:DR is certainly more portable than an arcade machine.

The most important facet of any fighting game is