Here’s a cool video showing how Naughty Dog, the studio behind Uncharted made the debut trailer for their newly revealed PS3 survival game, The Last of Us.

The game is rumored to ship later this year. Fingers crossed.

In the last 24 hours, the gaming internet has been on fire with talk of the PR Nightmare that caused Ocean Marketing’s Paul Christoforo to lose his job. The story is up on the main page, but the basics go like this; a customer emailed Christoforo regarding the status of an order, which led to some very snippy responses from the rep, including name dropping the Mayor of Boston, and the editors of IGN and Kotaku. Christoforo then name dropped online gaming comic Penny Arcade, which led to the site’s Mike Krahulik to respond by banning the company from PAX East. It may be sad that it had to come to this, but the whole situation reveals a lot about who we are as gamers, and how far we’ve come when compared to other industries like movies, TV and music.

Every year the gaming Industry converges on Los Angeles for E3, and every year it’s met with more excess and bigger budgets. Huge elaborate displays, no doubt well compensated models and over the top stunts (two years ago THQ turned an entire city block of downtown L.A. into a territory occupied by North Korea for Homefront — just think of all of the expenses and permits associated with clearing that with the LAPD). Then there’s the parties. I remember very specifically when I wrote for a different site, hanging out on top of a high rise just blocks from the convention center during a party for Atari’s Test Drive Unlimited 2. Let me paint you a picture, free booze, everything covered in white, dancers grinding on each other, thumping music and what I could only assume was food. Notice something missing? Oh yeah, video games. After looking around, I found that there was one big screen, running the game, which was totally available the entire time I was there tucked far into the corner.

Now, I don’t bring this up because I hate parties, or drinking or free stuff (they gave away noise canceling headphones and Atari towels), but that I went back to my hotel worrying that the industry I’ve loved since I was a kid was becoming what we always feared. We were becoming another one of those excess first industries where we don’t know anyone’s name, and worry more about the ahem….”glitz and glamour” of the business instead. Then, the next day all hope was restored when I was sitting in the PlayStation VIP demo booth checking out the newly announced PlayStation Move with Ted Price of Insomniac Games and Ken Levine of Irrational Games. It reminded me that we still haven’t gone completely to the darkside yet, and there’s still a ton of unity within even the industries bigger names.

This whole Ocean Marketing Situation is much the same. Think about it. Penny Arcade has become a major player in the gaming industry. Not only do they have their own comic strip, but they’ve also got their own game, convention and charity. They did not have to get involved in something like this. Imagine if this happened with the movie industry, and someone name dropped a famous director like Spielberg or Robert Redford, actor and founder of the Sundance Festival. Do you really think either of them would give a shit about somebody being an ass to a customer, let alone responding? Saying nothing about their character, it’s hard to believe they would, the movie industry has gotten almost too big, and it may seem cliche; but no one cares about the little guy anymore. Krahulik stepping up and not only defending the customer, but taking action and letting the res of the world know that this type of behavior is not going to be tolerated, and banning the guy from PAX is a prime example of just how in the face of so much excess, we’re still focusing on what’s important (but come on guys, those death threats you’re sending his way are making this entire column look bad.

Oh and hey, here’s a funny video someone did of the incident.

Microsoft has pledged their long term devotion to the Xbox 360, citing that the system will have a lifespan of at least ten years; but that doesn’t mean that it will always be the company’s only console on the market. European Xbox head Chris Lewis spoke recently about the console and the timing of its successor.

“We think we’re a little over halfway with the life cycle of the console, but that’s not to say there won’t be an overlap,” he told gaming site Metro. Lewis was quick to point out that he would not be confirming any details at this time. “”I’m not going to announce specifically or talk about timing,” he added. “But you could imagine there could be overlap, it depends. We’re not being specific about the next generation at this stage. We’re very fixated on what we’re doing right now and the success we’re enjoying.”

The Xbox 360 launched in November of 2005, making Lewis’ statement about being halfway through the lifespan  correct. It’s highly rumored that the next Xbox console will be unveiled at next year’s E3 in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES — Namco Bandai Games and Team Aces released a special E3 2011 trailer for Ace Combat Assault Horizon.

Blast had a chance to get hands-on with the game for a short period of time. It is visually stunning, with great terrain, aircraft detail, and all the arcade action we’ve come to expect from the Ace Combat franchise.

The controls were a bit loose for our liking, but that’s usually something that can be adjusted in the final product.

The game is an arcade flight combat sim, with few bits of realism. You get dozens of missiles, shoot down dozens of aircraft, and fly in ways real aircraft (and pilots) usually can’t withstand. Still, the series is fun, and the trailer is amazing.

“For us, this is a rebirth of our premiere franchise, Ace Combat. It’s a chance for us to take the player in a completely new direction,” said Kazutoki Kono, Producer and Executive Director of Project Aces at Namco Bandai. “I’m confident that we’re creating a new type of intense and visceral action shooting experience with Ace Combat Assault Horizon. We’re utilizing all of our collective vision and skills to deliver a phenomenal game. Players will be closer than ever to the combat, experiencing the impact of each shot fired.”

If dodging skyscrapers and shooting down MIGs are your things, then pick up a copy when it launches for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in mid-October.

LOS ANGELES — Undoubtedly, the biggest news to come out of this year’s E3 was Nintendo’s announcement of it’s brand new home console, The Nintendo Wii U. Featuring a controller complete with a 16.2′ LCD screen and classic button layout with two analog circle pads and a D-Pad; the Wii U is like nothing else you’ve played before. With the Wii U, Nintendo wanted to “remove the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world.” In easier terms, the Wii U allows gamers to transfer the screen from the TV to the controller’s LCD screen. there’s a ton of other cool options like using the controller as a tablet to being able to teleconference with it as well. Check out the video below, played during Nintendo’s E3 press conference.

Pretty lofty goals huh? Blast got the chance to sit down with Nintendo and take the new hardware and its tech demos out for a test drive at this year’s E3.

The Controller

At first sight, the controller looks big and bulky. While it is quite large (it’s bigger than everything we’ve seen so far, including the big original Xbox controller), but it’s surprisingly light and comfortable to hold. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to navigate. Perhaps its just because we’re not used to a setup like this, but during our hands on time with the controller, we constantly found ourselves hitting the wrong buttons and fumbling around to find exactly what we had to press. It got better after a bit of time, but the new experience definitely doesn’t come naturally.

The Games

In reality, it’s unfair to call what Nintendo showed off actual games; they’re more of tech demos. The first of these demos we were able to check out (read: it wasn’t playable) was that of The Legend of Zelda. It’s obvious that it was meant to show off the new system’s graphical power — and it worked. Miles ahead of the Wii, the demo showed Link fighting a giant spider in a church building. The image was very detailed, and we were able to switch between night and day to truly check out how the system could handle details.

The Wii U Zelda title used the new controller mostly as an inventory system, allowing gamers to switch from one item to the other on the fly. Of course, you could also flip the image to the LCD screen entirely.

The Zelda Wii U demo featured impressive HD visuals.

Next, we were able to get our hands on Battle Mii, a game which had one character control the ship from Metroid  using the new controller, while three other people controlled soldiers wearing Samus’ suit as they tried to shoot the ship down using Wii-motes.  Playing as the ship required us to take advantage of the game’s gyroscope by moving all over the place. It’s a lot harder than it seemed, and we found ourselves failing a lot. Playing as the soldiers was easy with the Wiimote.

We also played Super Mario Bros Mii, which played exactly like New Super Mario Bros, but allowed you to swap in your Mii characters. The key here is that the touch screen was able to render the game’s image quite well, and I found myself not even looking up to the actual TV screen much.

New Super Mario Bros Mii.

The Verdict

It’s really tough to say right now. Yes, it’s novel and yes, it’s new, but we saw what happened when the Wii’s novelty wore off. The tech demos were fun, but they were nothing revolutionary. The Wii U’s success will depend on a number of things, including third party support (we’ve already been promised everything from Aliens to Batman and Dirt 3), how the developers use the tech and how the Nintendo team can bring the new tech to storied franchises.

The Nintendo Wii U will launch in 2012.

LOS ANGELES — Disney Interactive Studios released some video, character images, and screenshots to go with the game’s E3 debut.

The game looks pretty adorable, so all you Disney superfans will want to check these out. The screenshots include scenes from “Alice in Wonderland” and “Monsters Inc.”

Company line: “Disney Universe mixes up, for the first time, characters and worlds inspired by both animated and live action films from Disney’s Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Pictures. Players will enjoy this fast-paced, multiplayer action-adventure game, available Fall 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Windows PC/MAC.”

Nyko has announced a new Zoom peripheral for the Kinect designed to allow gamers in small spaces to play their motion capture games.

The Zoom’s specially designed optical lenses fit over the Kinect sensor, clipping into place with no wires and nothing to plug in.

“The Zoom opens up a whole new world of Kinect play to those who previously lacked the space required to fully enjoy it,” Nyko said in a statement. “The Zoom reduces the play range required to enjoy Kinect software by up to 40 percent, allowing you to play closer to your TV. Zoom’s wide angle lens also enables two people to play in an area normally only suitable for a single player, making it ideal for those in smaller apartments or dorm rooms.”

The product will retail for $29.99. Check out the Nyko Zoom here.

LOS ANGELES — Namco Bandai Games America has announced at E3 that a Ridge Racer title is under development for Sony’s next generation handheld, the Vita.

The company released two concept pictures of a car in the game to go with the news.

Ridge Racer (title subject to change) is due out some time after Vita launches at the end of the year.

“Players can expect high-speed drifting at break-neck speeds in high-performance racing machines with new exciting new gameplay additions. Drift racing fans looking for edge-of-your-seat action will be able to truly feel the on-screen drama through the revolutionary features of the PlayStation Vita,” the company said in a statement.

LOS ANGELES — Here we are at E3, a magazine from Boston. And from Boston, there are some amazing developers of video games.

The biggest local question: Can Harmonix keep it going with Dance Central 2, or have we seen the end of the music video game?

Four local game makers had big news to unveil at the show so far this year, including Irrational Games, of Quincy; Turbine Inc., of Needham, Quick Hit Inc., of Foxborough and of course Cambridge’s own Harmonix Music Systems Inc.

Harmonix has the most riding on the expo. The music game maker is on troubled waters. In February, Harmonix, which created the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, announced nearly 40 layoffs amid slumping sales figures that spurred parent company Viacom/MTV Games to unload it in a firesale.

At E3 this year, Harmonix showed off the sequel to its latest project, Dance Central, an Xbox 360 exclusive title that was one of the first games built on Microsoft’s Kinect motion capture technology.

Dance Central 2 continues the trend of completely controller-free, full-body motion capture which has made Kinect different than Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Move technologies.

The sequel adds real-time multiplayer, allowing two people to bust their moves at the same time. And if you get tired, another friend can jump right in mid-song without penalty.

“We just wanted to get people dancing together,” said Kasson Crooker, senior producer at Harmonix. “The game really shows off Kinect really well. Whenever people talk about Kinect, they talk about our game.”

Dance Central was developed parallel to Kinect, and released around the same time.

“Harmonix adapted and embraced Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, making Dance Central the system’s first killer app,” said Will Tuttle, a video game industry expert and editor in chief at GameSpy.com. “While this week’s announcement of multiplayer dancing in Dance Central 2 wasn’t earth shattering, you can bet that fans of the first game will snatch it up.”

Dance Central 2 will include more than 40 songs, including music from Rihanna, B.o.B, Usher, Nicki Minaj, and Far East Movement. AL CQ

Harmonix introduced Dance Central here at E3 last year. The game was a success when it launched, selling about 2.5 million copies so far, Crooker said.

Tuttle thinks the company will come out of this year successfully.

“No matter what they do next, I think Harmonix has shown that they know music games far better than any developer in the game industry,” he said. “More importantly, the musicians themselves now respect Harmonix enough to work closely with them, ensuring a finished product that is more polished than competing games.”

But a change was obvious for Harmonix at the show this year. In years past, the company was a larger-than-life presence at E3. In 2009, during the Beatles Rock Band hype, the company erected mock concert stages and had one of the largest booths at the show. Last year’s was 100,000 square feet, with Dance Central. Harmonix had dance floors created to show off the game. This year, Harmonix, under new ownership, was relegated to sharing space with five other Kinect games inside Microsoft’s booth.

The problem for Harmonix has been the plateauing and quickly declining popularity of music games. Sales problems resulted in conflict with Harmonix parent company Viacom/MTV Games, which put Harmonix on the block. In December, Harmonix was bought by New York investment firm Columbus Nova LLC for $50 in cash and the assumption of $100 million in liabilities.

Elsewhere around the Bay State’s presence in LA, tiny Quick Hit actually busted out of the gate first, with the announcement Monday that it would be essentially bought out by Majesco Entertainment Co., of New Jersey.

Quick Hit produces a free online football strategy game which received a coveted NFL license last year.

Majesco paid about $800,000 for nearly all of the company’s assets and will hire all of its employees, CEO and founder Jeffrey Anderson who will join Majesco as its Senior Vice President of Social Games.

The move makes sense for Majesco, as the company is focused on casual and social gaming and is trying to make a big move into sports this year. Majesco also announced Monday that it would develop an NBA licensed basketball game that uses casual elements combined with motion capture technology. That game is due out next spring.

Irrational, the Quincy-based arm of 2K Games, is the studio behind the Bioshock video game franchise. It did not exhibit at E3 last year, but this year it showed off a new game and hinted at a second new title in the works.

At a Sony press event Monday, Ken Levine, Irrational’s creative director, announced that the PlayStation 3 version of its upcoming Bioshock Infinite game would be compatible with PlayStation Move for motion capture. Levine also said that he had a “pet project” in the works – a Bioshock game for Sony’s new PlayStation Vita handheld system. He did not give the project a name or release any other details on the game.

The barebones announcement still set off fuses of excitement in the gaming community.

“That’s all we know. But like, isn’t that enough to pique your interest? It’s enough for us,” blogged Justin McElroy, the reviews editor at Joystiq, who was covering the Sony event.

Another consistent local success story at E3 is Turbine. After being purchased by Warner last year and taking its popular online role playing game The Lord of the Rings Online from a subscription model to a free play model, Turbine now runs the number 3 and 4 online RPGs in the world, in Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons Online.

At E3 this year, Turbine announced the Rise of Isengard expansion pack, which adds three new regions for players to explore as well as expanding the leveling-up ability to 75, and adding a 24-player cooperative mode as players explore and save Middle Earth. (more on that later this week)

Also at E3, Immerz Inc., with an office in Cambridge, showed off a new and improved version of its KOR-fx device, which places an audio peripheral on the user’s chest, allowing them to actually feel what’s going on in a game or a movie. The company sees applications for the device in movie theaters, theme parks, and now with video games. Inventor Shahriar Afshar CQ announced yesterday the company’s first partnership for a video game built with KOR-fx technology, High Flyer Death Defyer, upcoming from Game Mechanic Studios, which also makes the Resistance franchise on the PlayStation.

The newly designed version of the KOR-fx was a brilliant move. Immerz waited until the product was ready in order to set a release date. Blast checked out this product at E3 last year, and it just wasn’t ready for shelves. There were too many wires, and it felt like you were being hooked up to some kind of polygraph by the time you turned on your movie or video game. The new version can be used wired (with fewer wires) or wireless, so that it does not get in your way. It was a smart move that will help the product when it launches this fall, especially in its near $200 price point.

LOS ANGELES — Cambridge-based Harmonix Music Systems Inc. has had well-documented troubles lately, including poor sales of its last Rock Band franchise titles that led to parent company Viacom/MTV Games practically giving it away to an investment group.

New York investment firm, Columbus Nova LLC, clearly had faith in Harmonix to assume $100 million in liabilities when it paid just $50 for the company in December.

But another big time player also outwardly expressed support for the music game pioneer: Microsoft.

“The team at Harmonix has delivered ground-breaking music titles to the video game industry including Dance Central, the best selling dance game on Kinect for Xbox 360. While quite a few developers can create a compelling vision for an experience, Harmonix is one of the few who can actually bring it to market. Kinect challenges game designers to think differently and it’s been a joy to see Harmonix embrace the technology to create a fun dance experience for everyone to enjoy,” said George Peckham, general manager of Microsoft’s Global Publishing Group, when asked by Blast for a comment on Harmonix’s position at E3.

For the first time in years, Harmonix does not have its own booth at E3 this year. Instead, Dance Central 2 is mixed in with a half dozen Kinect titles inside Microsoft’s booth.

Microsoft, however, has no problem giving Harmonix a platform to showcase its latest offering.

Will Tuttle, editor of GameSpy.com, agreed with the sentiment.

“Right now, I think it’s too early to say that the music/rhythm game genre is dying. It’s definitely evolving, and Harmonix has been the developer most responsible for driving that change. When they first released Guitar Hero back in 2005, doubters questioned whether anyone would buy a plastic guitar. Sure enough, they did,” Tuttle said. “When Rock Band was revealed, we wondered if people would care enough about music games to invest hundreds of dollars in a complete band set. The game was a smash hit and spawned Rock Band parties and bar nights dedicated to helping people live out their rock ‘n roll fantasies. Once that market soured slightly, Harmonix adapted and embraced Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, making Dance Central the system’s first killer app.”

To Tuttle and other analysts, the decision to back Harmonix is simple: people love music, and Harmonix does music video games better than anyone else.

“Harmonix has shown that they know music games far better than any developer in the game industry,” he said. “More importantly, the musicians themselves now respect Harmonix enough to work closely with them, ensuring a finished product that is more polished than competing games. They’ve also shown an affinity for pushing the music genre outside of traditional ‘gaming’ in an effort to actually teach people how to play music. With music department budgets shrinking in our public schools, this should be viewed as a step in a very good direction.”

Dance Central 2 features more than 40 songs, including a new multiplayer dance mode, allowing two players to dance at the same time.

“While this week’s announcement of multiplayer dancing in Dance Central 2 wasn’t earth shattering, you can bet that fans of the first game will snatch it up,” Tuttle said. “So what’s next for Harmonix? I’m personally hoping for a game that combines dancing and singing, allowing me to channel my inner Justin Timberlake to put on the ultimate stage show.”

LOS ANGELES — Those who watched Nintendo’s press conference earlier today were treated to a montage of third party games that were on their way to Nintendo’s brand new console; the Wii- U. The footage looked good, great even. There’s just one problem, it wasn’t from the Wii U at all.

The footage was from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the games, Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed in a post conference interview with Game Trailers TV. The reasoning? As Reggie puts it, the console is a year out from release, and footage of the game’s running on the new console simply aren’t ready yet.

Speaking as someone in attendance during the presentation earlier today, the crowd was very impressed with the footage. Was it fair to not note that the videos weren’t from Wii U hardware?

LOS ANGELES — Tetris Online, Inc. (www.tetrisonline.com) today announced the upcoming release of Tetris for Nintendo 3DS, set to hit stores in October.

“Tetris for Nintendo 3DS will allow fans to experience the game like never before – in 3D!” the company said in a statement. “With over 20 eye-catching game modes, Tetris or Nintendo 3DS delivers a rich mix of both traditional and innovative ways to enjoy playing the Tetris game.”

“The unique capabilities of Nintendo 3DS inspired us to develop a Tetris game that exceeds fan expectations at every level,” said Minoru Arakawa, president and chief executive officer of Tetris Online, Inc. “Tetris for Nintendo 3DS delivers an experience that you have to see to believe.”

Tetris for Nintendo 3DS features include:

• Over 20 Game Modes!
• Featured Game Modes: Marathon, Computer Battle, Fever, and Survival
• Party Game Modes: Stage Racer Plus, Shadow Wide, Jigsaw, Tower Climber, Capture, Fit, Bombliss, Sprint, and Master Mode
• Augmented Reality Game Modes: AR Marathon and AR Tower Climber
• Local Multiplayer Game Modes (2P–8P): VS Battle, VS Stage Racer, VS Shadow Wide, VS Capture, and Co?op Tower Climber
• Download Play Game Modes (2P–8P): Marathon with Everyone, Fever with Everyone, and VS Battle
• Nintendo® Wi?Fi Connection Game Modes (2P–6P): 3 variants of World Battle
• Discover new exciting Items for Fever using SpotPass™

LOS ANGELES — After months of speculation, we know that the Nintendo’s next new console will be the Wii U. Unveiled just minutes ago during the company’s E3 2011 Press Event, The Wii U is like nothing you’ve ever seen.

The controller as seen above features a 6.2 inch LCD screen and can be used in a variety of different ways. Of course, you can use it in the traditional controller sense, but you can also transfer the image completely to the LCD screen, allowing the device to become more portable.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect is how the device can be used as a tablet. The video shown at the briefing allowed two players to sit the controller on a table and play a game of checkers just as you would with an iPad or similar device. The Wii U is also capable of surfing the internet, displaying pictures and a lot more.

A slew of games were confirmed for the new console including Ninja Gaiden, Dirt, Assassin’s Creed and of course, Super Smash Bros.

Blast will be going hands on with the console later this week.

Last week we brought you what could be the box art for Modern Warfare 3, and today, thanks to Kotaku, we now have what looks to be even further info on the world’s most anticipated game. Here’s the rundown.

• The game is expected to release on November 8 of this year. This release model fits in with previous Call of Duty games, as each game in the series since Call of Duty 3 has been released in the first or second week of November.
• The story will pick up minutes after the events of Modern Warfare 2 and will wrap up storylines, as well as feature the “final moments” of key characters.
• The game will feature huge battles in cities like New York, London and Paris.
• The story will span 15 chapters, and it all begins with a Russian invasion of New York City.
• Two new characters will be introduced, Frost and Sandman — both members of Delta Force.

Again, take all of this with a grain of salt until something is officially unveiled, which will likely happen at this year’s E3.

UPDATE: Activision has released a teaser trailer for the game, featuring the logo we reported on earlier. Check it out below:

UK based magazine PlayGamer is reporting that Sony is  hard at work on a sequel to 2007′s PS3 exclusive Heavenly Sword.

According to the magazine, the sequel will be set ten years after the events of the original and feature a sandbox style world with replayable missions. The magazine also reports that the titular Heavenly Sword won’t be available at the beginning of the game, but rather you’ll spend the majority of the game in search of it.

Released in 2007, Heavenly Sword has sold over 1.5 million copies was one of the first major exclusives for the PS3.

You didn’t take the 2011 date shown at the end of the Mass Effect 3 trailer to heart did you? Hope not, as Bioware has announced that Mass Effect 3 will now release sometime in the first three months of next year.

The announcement came via Mass Effect 2′s official Facebook page, where Executive Producer Casey Hudson assured fans that the delay was for the best. ”The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations.”

If Mass Effect 3 does release in the first quarter of next year, it will mirror the release of Mass Effect 2, which released in late January of 2010.

Blast has already booked time with Mass Effect 3 at this year’s E3, check back during the show to hear all of our nerdy lust for the game.

Earlier this week we reported that Nintendo was planning on announcing a new HD console at this year’s E3.  Now it seems we’re getting our first details on the rumored new console.

Reportedly, the new console, which features hardware that either rivals or comes close to that of the Xbox 360 and PS3 will feature a touch screen style controller and motion control features similar to the Move. Reportedly the console is already being shown to select publishers in preparation from this summer’s show.

“Nintendo’s plans sound unreal,” one source said to website CVG. “Publishers are already planning launch titles and it’s all very exciting.

Blast already has a seat for Nintendo’s press conference at E3 and will bring you all the news as it happens.

Rockstar hasn’t even officially announced Grand Theft Auto V yet, but that hasn’t stopped Gamestop Germany from giving it a January 2012 release date.

Rumors have been circulating for months that Rockstar will be unveiling the latest installment in the blockbuster series after a job posting for a game that sounded an awful lot like it could be set in Liberty City was spotted.

Stick with Blast for more info on GTA V and all of the big rumors leading up to E3 in June.

Confirming long standing rumors, Blast has learned that Nintendo will unveil its brand new console at this year’s E3.

The new console, as first reported by Game Informer this morning is reportedly capable of running HD graphics at or near the capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Reportedly, Nintendo is already shopping the new console around to several publishers in hopes of securing AAA third party titles.

Stick with Blast for further information on this and all of your other gaming news.

LOS ANGELES — At E3 this year, we were given a special treat from Square, the makers of the hugely popular, long-running Final Fantasy series: a (mostly) technical demo of their newest entry into the franchise, Final Fantasy XIV. Like XI, this installment will be an MMORPG, so giving much of an in-depth demo beyond the graphics wasn’t too feasible with the time constraints of E3.

The demo was set up with NVidia’s 3D display system (support for which may or may not make it to the end user), and once we got used to wearing the glasses, we were blown away. In the town setting of the demo, we were able to look out into the distance or view objects up close, and we could even distinguish between individual blades of grass and flowers that you can even watch grow from all different angles. The lighting, too, was impressive: the sun leaves varying degrees of shadow from different objects, and going from outside to inside, or vice versa, causes the camera to mimic the adjustments your eyes would have to make in the real world, refocusing to the light level.

Character models are exceptionally detailed and animated, too, as evidenced by a non-player character inside one of the buildings cooking food: you can see individual items of food being tossed as he cooks, leaving a surreal, Uncanny Valley-reminiscent sensation at how lifelike his actions were. NPCs are even rendered at much greater distances than similar games, allowing one to feel really immersed in their surroundings, and will certainly lead to a feeling of being in a densely populater area when there are lots of people around. If you look off into the distance, for example, you might see little specks moving around the terrain; these are actual characters, instead of having flat backgrounds with objects that only load when you get within a few feet of them.

After allowing us to wander around their town, all the people demoing were joined into a party to go on a simple quest to kill two crab-like creatures. Where the quest system shines is in the reactive nature of different elements of the task at hand: for example, after killing one crab, the other escapes and finds another to help fight back, and the quest changes and we then had to kill three crabs instead of the original two. This process can repeat, and a simple quest to kill a creature or two can grow into a more epic battle.

It’s still too early to tell how the latest foray into the world of Final Fantasy will turn out, but this early glimpse is promising. If you were a fan of XI, this could be just what you’re waiting for, but it’ll be quite a feat to take some of the market share from World of Warcraft.

LOS ANGELES — As with many things related to the art and technology overlap, trending occurs in cyclical cat-and-mouse patterns that lease to the ever pressing question “who dunnit.” and at this year’s E3 several industry trends were seen throughout the giants of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, but also remained undercurrents for smaller developers and publishers.

3D

Hollywood studios have really embraced 3D technology thank to box-office billions and advancements spurred by the digital revolution in filming techniques leading to HD-stereoscopic frame capture; thus began our most recent obsession with blowing things up like The Terminator himself, but gaming isn’t quite there yet. Nintendo, however, gave us something to be happy about- the 3DS, a continuation of the DS handheld line, will feature 3D visuals without the need for glasses and set to hit shelves the end of March 2011. The big news here has been focused not on the 3DS itself, but on a much awaited and well received reboot of Kid Icarus (Project Sora), and the battle between Sony’s glasses-needed 3D television technology and Nintendo’s glass-free 3DS. The field of 3D vision is limited with the 3DS—if you look just outside of a specific range you will lose the 3D effect, so maybe Sony has the right idea and is just late to the party. The 3DS has a new analog slider, but not the expected wide-top-screen. There is a 3D camera, along with two other cameras, accelerated WiFi specs, and a wicked game lineup including editions to the Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid franchises.

Hands-Free

Another sexy applied science laid on us at E3 was the second-gen "Hands-Free" gaming capabilities. Following fast in Nintendo’s Wii-steps were Microsoft and Sony this year, setting off bombs during their press conferences with the Kinect and Move, respectively. A lot of gamers (including yours truly) are a bit skeptical still about getting up off our asses and wiggling, shaking and making a (bigger) fool (than throwing remotes in heated curse-driven temper-tantrums) out of ourselves or just exerting the energy.

When I walked into the XB/Kinect demo of Dance Central, a Harmonix game (thank the nice people for the RockBand games, dear) I stated, "I was a dancer for 12 years, impress me." That, boys and girls, they did. A Boston area professional hottie dancer, Frenchie-who worked on a dance team involved with Harmonix for a year of development, went through the Kinect-ed actions and tore up the floorboards, showing us what the real capabilities of the game was to even the most advanced dancer. I, then, took my turn to show how easy it is for precocious little know-nothings like me to pick up the choreography and the Kinect began to grow on me.

The Kinect was made for games like this, and doesn’t the idea of your gaming platform recognizing your existence kinda cool? We’ve all dreamed about the Holodeck. Sony’s Move uses a "wand". That’s right- I said it, go ahead and giggle. This glowing-microphone-design may attract children, but I’m not so convinced that the elitist gamers out there will embrace playing with a wand. While Kinect’s system is you, your Kinect-cam and your Xbox, Sony’s is a bit more complicated– there’s sub-controllers, the ability to use multiple wands to simulate various weaponry, as well as the ®Eye camera, which may overwhelm a lot of first time hands-free users. Kinect is much simpler, yet packs a much more powerful punch- it is an add-on for the Xbox that contains camera, audio sensors, and motion-sensing technology that tracks 48 points of movement on the human body and has the ability to recognize faces and voices.

Move is on track to be released in September with bundles starting under $100, and Kinect is set for a $149 price point, to be released in November. Each offer a fairly predictable lineup of sports titles, with Move-titles Resident Evil 5 (CAPCOM) and LOTR: Aragon’s Quest (WB) being the two more serious franchises to look forward to. Kinect admittedly needs to release a more thrilling game lineup, with its most exciting offers looking to be Dance Central (Harmonix) and Joy Ride (Microsoft).

Cross-overs

From gamer to rock star, or adventurer, or crab fisherman, or fill-in-the-blank—there was a group of games I’m delegating be called "cross-overs" because the intention with the developer was other than just to entertain, but also to teach. Most of the music themed franchises went with stringed instruments this year, so RockBand and GuitarHero enthusiasts who have tired of pushing buttons, and would rather be pouring 80 hours "sticky-sweet" rocking out into actual application of musical knowledge. No longer can naysayers proclaim gamers and games as a waste of time, especially now that demographics 70% of kids ages 8-18 own a platform. Now games can raise a whole new generation of musicians that are fluent in many generations of music and rock history, but with the practical skills to apply that knowledge.

Within this genre are two games created by CRAVE that are far from musically inclined, and hopefully going to improve past the demo stage presented at E3- Bear Grylls’ (???) Man Vs. Wild, and The Deadliest Catch, both based on Discovery Channel reality docu-dramas. When speaking to both Grylls and Sig Hansen captain of the Northwestern on The Deadliest Catch, there was a connection for them both between being inspired by fan response to extend the lessons of survival, camaraderie and strong work ethic. Can this be done in a game format? Maybe, but the developers have a long way to go before it is as convincing as a steady-cam.

Hopefully this focus of cross-over knowledge can be sustained in the industry; secretly it makes me a little bit proud for the evolution of the art and the technology that real(ish)-world application could start here, and before long remove a lot of the stigma behind the masterpieces that have been created over the years, and the ones in development now that continue to challenge the way people are entertained, educated and enlightened.

LOS ANGELES — THQ is releasing a new Video Game, to accompany the new DreamWorks movie “Megamind.”

There seems to be fairly limited details on the new movie, mostly based on the two trailers that have been released. The new Movie is about the Super Villain Megamind who manages to kill his opponent. He then decides he needs a new super hero, so attempts to create a new one. Unfortunately his newly created super hero actually decides he likes being a villain better, and instead of ruling the world just destroys everything. This forces Megamind to take on the role of super hero to stop him. The premise behind this movie and game is interesting, that "villains make the best heroes."

The game plays as Megamind, and his trusty side-kick Minion, trying to stop Titan and the Doom Syndicate. Megamind’s super power is cliche, his mind. The game generally follows the movie, but since games tend to be longer they had to add more enemies to fight. They didn’t just come up with random characters themselves though, they used some of the extra characters designed for the movie that were removed, because of time constraints. THQ worked with the movie team to make sure these added characters would fit with the story.

THQ also made an interesting decision on how to make the game mult-iplatform. Instead of having a game for each platform that aims at the lowest common denominator, they decided to make three different games focusing on the strengths of each platform. The HD version of the game is a single player with second player assist, similar to Super Mario Galaxy but is only available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For the Wii, though they went with a 4 player brawler, where you can unlock new characters by beating them. The DS, and the PSP are aimed at fitting their screen, and using their technology but being a different game than the HD version.

While at E3, we were able to try out the HD version. They designed it to be a good family game, approachable by all ages.

The controls are very simple, just basic movement on the D-pad, a button for shoot and another for action. They made nearly everything in the game destructible, figuring that kids like to go around destroying things.

THQ tried to make the puzzles not too simple to bore the adults. This was harder to see from the short demo of the game we saw. The game seemed to play like any 3D platformer. With super power upgrades, and bad guys to beat up along the way. The game did seem fun. We even saw a Tesla gun upgrade that let us chain hit enemies, one after another. Though like a lot of movie based games it will likely rely heavily on the success or failure of the movie.

Megamind the game is scheduled to be released with the movie in November.

LOS ANGELES — EA remains the fan-pleasing factory of gaming titles to entice both new and hardcore gamers alike. At this year’s E3, there weren’t any huge surprises, other than Crysis2 not sucking. (because, admit it, we all thought C1 totally did.)

I had the chance to demo a few games, and was escorted to “family games” before I got a chance to get my hands on the beef.

Some of the family-oriented games, like Monopoly and Hasbro Family Game Night 3, are right on cue for ages 4-444, with bold graphics and customizable characters based on your Mii or XBLA avatar so any member of the family can own their pwnage. A newer version of the classic Risk was on show as well.

One rising star in the all-ages genre is a new game by EA Bright Lights, the team responsible for the newest title in the Harry Potter series, Spare Parts. Part WALL-E -meets-Spyro, it will be one that kids play and awaken the inner-gamer in mom and dad. (Yes, I do want to play it; no- it has nothing to do with me being a girl. Shut it!) It may become the secret guilty-pleasure for many gamers. Who doesn’t like Robots? EA dubs this a “cooperative action adventure”, trending toward the online co-op capabilities that is becoming the norm these days in the gaming scene.

The Need for Speed franchise made a comeback with a return to it’s roots- a classic cop-chasing-bad guy game, complete with Lamborghini cop cars in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The cars are typically unrealistically hard to handle, but what do you expect from a memorizable game? In the realm of graphic quality I’ll hand it to them, however. The cars are rockin’, and the hot rod shown at E3 to catch our attention was one hot tamale.

When the boys finally let me come to the yard, I have to admit, I totally got schooled in the Medal of Honor demo. I was just too distracted by how fast and smoothly the game rendered, a sign of a great engine, and well thought out gameplay. I was happy to sit back and watch the diehards go at it, and contribute to the death of an insurgent or two. Electronic Arts los Angeles is handling the single-player action, but DICE stepped it up for the online co-op. You die fast and hard, thanks to what DICE calls “faster bullets.” Remind me to thank them for my lesson in humility.

Crysis 2 is a vast improvement on the original, but I have to shame the developers in picking NYC as it’s location of destruction. As much as I love the idea of NYC as the futuristic dystopian gamer’s paradise, it is, perhaps, too soon to see iconic New York City fall to the ground in a blaze of alien-gutted glory. The gameplay is rich, thrilling and maybe this will be the redeeming title for the still neophitic development team of Crytek who didn’t quite walk the walk with Crysis the first time around. The big news with Crysis 2 is the expectation of 3D capabilities. The gameplay is engaging and frenetic, adding to the overall atmosphere of doom and destruction; AI placement has been done well, and those aforementioned icons of NYC are easily recognizable with a nice depth quality.

All titles will be released between the fall and holiday seasons. Family titles will be available for about $39.99.

Other titles expected for release include sports giants like Madden NFL 2011, FIFA 2011, NCAA Football, and NHL/NHL Slapshot. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Pt 1 — which grew up with the apprentice sorcerer into something close to a third-person shooter — and the Sims3 round out the mid-range, with killer titles like Dead Space 2 and Bulletstorm rounding out the hardcore gamer genre, and are expected to be well received, leaving EA living up to its reputation as a powerhouse publisher.

LOS ANGELES — This fall, THQ will release three Wii titles based on popular television game shows — “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”

In all three games, set for a November 2 release, you will be able to use your Mii characters and change their clothing and appearance. THQ worked with the hosts of the shows and have complete voice overs from Jeff Foxworthy, Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and Charlie O’Donnell and Alex Trebek. Two of the game, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune also have an added feature of using the new Wii Speak. This will allow users to speak their answer or letter into the microphone instead of having to type out your answers.

While playing Jeopardy there will be multiple difficulty levels. If you choose the easiest level you will not need the use of the Wii speak because it uses multiple choice answers. The demonstrator also informed me that you will not say "what is" because the computer already will recognize it, just speak the answer. There will be thousands of questions and categories and the program will use "sophisticated randomization" to make sure you don’t get the same questions and categories, you may see a question or category twice, but it is rare.

Playing with Wheel of Fortune was fun, there are two options, you can speak the letters and speak to solve the puzzle or point and click the letters. Spinning the wheel is great, hold the back button and flick your remote as if you were spinning the wheel. They have added multiple sets classic, Vegas, Hawaii, New York and a few others. The game runs in the same format as the show, with tossup puzzles, regular puzzles and who can forget the bonus round.

Well I know that I am not smarter than a fifth grader after playing with the demo of this fun game. This version is slightly different from the TV show, you play all the questions and each grade level is worth a different amount of money and you are trying to see how much money you can collect by finishing your questions, but you still have the same three options to save, copy and cheat. Added to the game is also a multiplayer level. This is a speed round and a race to the finish line. In this game you can do things to throw off your completion like cover your opponent’s questions and or answers, slow down your opponent by speeding up the allotted amount of time to answer questions or slow down yours. If you miss a question you go down a level while your opponent may go up by getting a question correct. This multiplayer option is a great spin on a single player game. All three of these games are sure to be fun when they come out in November!

LOS ANGELES — Crave games has teamed up with Discovery Communications and are coming out with two exciting games based off of two of their popular TV shows, Man vs. Wild and Deadliest catch: Sea of Chaos. Both games are both in the early stages of development and are being made for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3.

The Man vs. Wild game promises staying very true to the show thanks in part to Bear Grylls, the star of the show. He has been very involved in the making of the game. Not only has he been helping in the development to make sure things look as real as possible, but he has also done full voice overs for the game. There are over 80 animals and 50 insects and all of them behave the way they should in the wild. Overall there are going to be five levels in this game, the Rockies, Everglades, Sahara Desert, a South Pacific Jungle Island and the South American Patagonia Mountains. The game is a role playing adventure game where you will survive in the wilderness and maintain the vitals of your character (Bear Grylls). There will be challenges throughout the game and you will do things like build fires, and cook your food. Keep in mind that if you cook your fish you will gain more energy than if you eat it raw. This adventure game is slated to ship in November.

We did have some problems with the game during a hands-off demonstration at E3. The visuals are a bit dated, and there’s a “freefall” scene where you appear to be standing still and not moving at all as you supposedly plummet toward the earth.

Deadliest Catch Sea of Chaos is a "game interpretation of crab fishing." There are three kinds of activities you must complete in this game, strategy, timing, accuracy. A little disappointing in the fact that you do not actually play as the characters from their show or their boats, but if you know the show you will recognize that the ships are modeled off the Northwestern, the Wizard and the Time Bandit. They are hoping to get a fourth ship into the game but due to the recent tragedy, the death of the Captain Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie, it may not be possible.

Our favorite mini game was the "Head to Head with Sig Hanson,” where you go at it and see if you can catch as many crab as Sig Hanson did (modeled off his massive catch in Season Two). In this game you will hire your crew (all strategy as the better ones are going to want more money, older ones need more rest etc…) set sail, set pots, retrieving pots and sort your crab. You also must work with or against the other captains out in the Bering Sea and deal with the always changing weather.

Tiny Boston developer Double Tap Games is making this one.

John M. Guilfoil and Carly Erin O’Neil of the Blast staff contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES — Konami started their press conference talking about Def Jam Rapstar and the company’s multi-year deal with Def Jam.

The game is interesting in the connection between the game, your computer and your mobile phone. They claim they are going for a "constantly connected game." The game will allow the player to make video’s and then upload the videos to their site. Then their friends can watch the video’s and vote on them. They get updates on their phone from the votes. They are claiming that 1 million views on their website really make you a rapper. Konami’s logic leaves out the question of people liking a free video, vs paying for a CD. I’m interested to see whether anyone will become a real rap star after making it big on their site, will be interesting to watch for.

Russel Simmons is promoting the game. He believes that this is an area that has been ignored. He also talked about the benefits of hiph op, even claiming, that one "benefit of hip hop, we have president Obama."

Their next title was Lucha Libre AAA: H©roes del Ring. They will be releasing a wrestling game based on the Mexican Wresting style known as Lucha.

There will be a new Saw game, called Saw 2 Flesh and Blood, where they will use the same style as the original, having victims, like a doctor in a free clinic stealing the drugs. This game will use not only Togen Bell’s voice, but his likeness for a character also. The main character this time will be the son of Detective Tap, though they added an interesting part that not all freed subjects will greet you with open arms, "unless they stab you in the back."

Ninety Nine Nights 2 will come out June 29 with an online leader board and the ability to kill even more enemies with one attack than before. They are labeling it as an "extreme hack and slash title." Though they are enhancing the gameplay so that you can’t simply repeat the same move forever.

A new 2D side scrolling game will be coming to the US. It’s called Otomedius and it’s excellent. This is aimed at both the hard core shoot-em-out genre, or for new players to this space. This game is similar to Gradius, and Parodius.

Later, Konami introduced a slightly different game, Dance Masters for the Microsoft Kinect. Up to two players can be on the screen at once. You can move your body freely. The game instructs the players on how to move by putting silhouettes on the screen for how the player should be standing at the next spot in the music. The game allows the player to save the dance scene and show it off to their friends, or use it to have backup dancers for their next time.

The next titles weren’t discussed just mentioned. From Hudson, a Bey Blade game, coinciding with the re-launching of the TV series. Decca Sports 3, and for the Kinect, Decca Sports Freedom.

There will be a new Silent Hill game, this time the main character is a Criminal on the run, that wondered into Silent Hill.

Kojima Productions introduced one of the new Metal Gear Solid games, called Raijin. This one will all be about swords and cutting. The game allows you to cut in precious ways. They show this off by having the character cut up a watermelon into slices. They also made the game allow the player to take parts, or absorb energy from your enemies. They made this with some strategy by making the player decide on what to take from the enemies. The options to take from the enemies are parts, energy, or information. They also improved the Stealth on the game from the Stealth used by previous heroes. There is no hiding on the ground, it’s a Hunting Stealth. The Story takes place between MGS2, and MGS4, and will describe how Riding got to become person he is together.

They next showed off info on the two new Castlevania games. The first, Harmony of Despair, is interesting and a little different. There is a big screen composed of many individual screens for the action. The game uses the HD TV’s to have 10million dots on the screen. Each individual screen is more like the familiar 2D platforms, but the enemies can follow you from screen to screen. The game allows the player to jump from screen to screen, but the enemies can follow you also. They are working it to add more features if it sells well. Starting with five playable characters, but add more and add more stages if it sells. This is scheduled for release on XBLA this summer.

The last video they showed was for Castlevania Lords of Shadow. That is scheduled for release this fall, on PS3, and Xbox 360. Not much more information was given on this game than the video.

LOS ANGELES — Target’s Bullseye Lounge was filled with some great, family-friendly, fun games from Ubisoft this year at E3. Target stores game sections are currently under renovation across the nation to make this area more user friendly. Instead of having the games behind glass, calling over the employee to open the glass case to even look at a game, Target is installing new shelves that make games more accessible for the public and more hands on by putting them in new shelves that have one of the games out and in plastic casing tethered to the shelf so that it can be held and seen from all angles. I have personally had the chance to experience this in my local Target store and I think it’s great; I can make decisions without having to go through the hassle of calling over the attended only to decide on not purchasing the game I wanted to see.

Target was demoing a few games in their Bullseye lounge that were family friendly two of my favorites were Hollywood Squares and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. Sadly you will not see Whoopi Goldberg in the game, but it was still fun and there are a few celebrities. When I was playing with the game, for example Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond) was the center square. The game was in a very early build, but it seems to follow the format of the show and even has actual clips of stars answering questions from the TV show. It looks promising for anyone who loved the TV show!

Ubisoft also is coming out with a multiplayer video game version of the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In this version each player has the chance to answer the question by using their arrow keys on their Wii remote. The multiple choice answers are displayed so that you can easily distinguish from up, down, right or left arrow. You are just going to have to keep your eyes on your own Wii remote so you don’t see what your friend answers. When playing in multiplayer mode there are also no lifelines, but there should be in the single player version. The game is for up to four players and will have over 3000 questions.

Target was also showing off a few other family friendly games that I didn’t spend time with, Gold’s Gym Dance Workout and Dance on Broadway. Both are aimed at getting families active and dancing. Watching the reactions of other people both games look like they should be pretty fun, one guy was even riding a bull in Gold’s Gym Dance Workout. Dance/active games seem to be on the rise this year all over E3 and the ones Target was sponsoring looked to be fun and family friendly.

Blast's Bradley Ouellette takes it for a spin

LOS ANGELES — Gaming accessories company CTA has just come out with a fun new toy to accompany Mario Kart Wii, Need for Speed, Sonic, and Sega All-Stars Racing, and any of the other Wii racing games.

This inflatable racing cart can support 300 pounds and has a steering wheel that your Wii remote can fit into. This is a great accessory for children but also for adults: it’s pretty comfortable and gets you into the game just a little bit more.

At the CTA booth at E3 they had a child demoing the inflatable cart, and he seemed to love the cart, as did the adults that tried it out. The inflatable cart is also Wii Motion Plus compatible and costs $39.99. These inflatable carts are available at places such as BestBuy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Toys ‘R Us, and online at Target. CTA also has many other great gaming accessories for the Wii Fit, like the rowing machine, weighted gloves, and adjustable dumbbell weights. You can check out all their products online.

LOS ANGELES — For any "gleeks" out there like myself, Glee Karaoke Revolution is a game that you will want to get your hands on. This game is special because it is the tenth release for the Karaoke Revolution franchise and they wanted to pick something special. The presenter and the Konami press conference stated they chose Glee because it has inspired the nation, has over 12 million viewers and the music has made it to number one on the billboard.

A great surprise at E3 was when Konami had the Powerhouse Choir from John Burroughs High School in Burbank California perform "Somebody to Love." This choir is one of the top show choirs in the nation and was an inspiration to the creators of glee and they have even performed on the Oprah Winfrey show.

When I had a hands on experience with the game, I fell in love and played through all five beta songs they had, my two favorites "My Endless Love" and "Somebody to Love". It has some great features that I can see from the beta, when you get things perfect it lets you know by singing an "ohh" sequence (just like the in-between scene "ohh’s" on the show). There were different difficulty levels you could play and while singing there were clips from season one in the background, including the scenes of the characters performing the song you are performing at the same time. I was a little disappointed, and it may just be a part of the demo I played, but what I was singing wasn’t strait melody. I like to sing the harmony parts, but I would like the harmony and the melody to be separated.

When the game is released, either in the fall or winter of this year (the date has not been determined yet, there is still a lot of work to be done on this game) they are planning on having 35 songs from the first season. By the time the game is released you will also be able to sing harmony mode with two players and there will be show clips to unlock from season one.

LOS ANGELES — With the 25th anniversary of “Top Gun,” Double 6 and Paramount are working on a new downloadable game.

This time they are working with Jack Epp Jr., the original author of “Top Gun” to make sure the game stays true to the original, Academy Award-winning film.

The developers are heavily skewing the game to the Indian Ocean mission at the end of the movie, and they are using the Top Gun school to get the players acquainted with the game.

The game has two modes, a story mode where you attempt to accomplish missions, following the story, and a “Horde Mode.” In Horde mode, it’s an endless wave of enemies that keep coming. You have to kill as many as possible and get the best score you can.

The game included a few interesting unique features inspired from real life fighter experiences. They animated the wings on the F-14 to move like the real ones do. The wings move in and out depending on the speed of the craft. They also created a tunnel vision similar to what real pilots experience before they black out. This was interesting when playing with the game, because when you pull High G’s, the sides of the screen go black, and you can only see a circle in the center. This creates an interesting counter to going too fast or being too hard on the stick.

They added a special mode Called "CFI" which allows the player to keep constant focus on the selected enemy. This allows the player to pull the maneuvers from the movie. This will move the game into a third person point of view for a short period. The game was fun in an arcade style. The Missiles regenerate so even though it is being limited you aren’t limited to only what the plane can launch with. That would make the horde mode too hard.

The graphics are pretty simple, consistent with other downloadable games. They’ve stuck with the original F-14 Tomcat fighter, which was retired by the Navy a few years ago. It’s good to see the Tomcat live on.

With a dearth of flight simulation games lately, you should definitely give this a go.

Top Gun is a quick one. We got our first look at it at E3 this year, and it’s already releasing in July, exclusively for the PlayStation Network.

LOS ANGELES — Speaking with Ubisoft associate producer Jean Francois Boivin, Blast was able to see the new Assassin’s Creed game, called Assassins Creed brotherhood, which comes out this November.

There is a full single player campaign, which was shown but not playable at E3 this year. The game takes place in the city of Forli, after the Events of Assassins Creed 2, where Ezio attacked the Pope. The Pope has come after Ezio. He has to now defend the city of Forli. The game uses the Caterina Sforza, who Ezio is currently sleeping with, who was historically in charge of Forli.

The story focuses again on the Apple of Eden, and its ability to control the minds of people. Through this, the game focuses on the battles between the Assassins and the Knights Templar.

The game uses more transportation methods. Horses will now be able to joust, and the player can use Flying Machines.

Ubisoft says there will be some 20,000 Non-Playable Characters, and a Hud Display showing, showing info such as how many people are left alive in the game.

The game was also designed to be more to have a faster attack system, so it’s not so much defensive oriented. Boivin, showed Ezio moving through the city, using ropes to fly up the side of buildings, and shooting the attacking forces with cannons, blowing up siege tools.

We were then able to actually play the multiplayer part of the new game. The game allows each player to select a character to play as, and what special abilities they want to use. The level is populated with many NPC’s for each player that is in the game. So walking around you will see three or four of the same character walking around on the screen. Each player is given a target of another player in the game, if a player is good, they might even have multiple people targeting them. So you have to sneak up on your target, trying not to alert them that you are not a NPC, and at the same time, not alert the person targeting you that you’re a real person.

This situation made it interesting in the game, that often when you kill your target, by killing them you expose yourself, and get killed by the person targeting you. There is also help in the radar that will point in the direction of your target. The radar is represented as a circle, with a highlighted section pointing in the direction of your target. The section highlighted gets bigger as you get closer to your target, until your near the other player, and then it’s a full circle. This means that it will get you close to your target, but not identify the exact person if there is multiple of the same character on the screen at the same time.

If you are seen then, you can run and hide. If you hide long enough the player looking for you will lose their target, and get a new one and a new player will be assigned to get you. The game allows you to hide in haystacks and use doors to slow down your pursuer. Likewise if the person your pursuing runs, you have to catch up with them before you lose the.

The game looks like its multiplayer will be the main selling point with the single player missions as a nice added bonus.

LOS ANGELES — "Technology is a tool… what matters is the experience," was what Reggie Fils-Aime promised from Nintendo this morning and he truly delivered. He promised that there would be "something for everyone" and being a girl and new to the gaming world I feel like there was something for me. I am very excited for these new products to be on the market so I can play with them and experience them for myself.

There was much more that was announced at this press conference, but there were some of the new products that truly stood out to us.

One of the first new games Nintendo is planning on releasing is a new Zelda game titled Skyward Sward. This game has become more new gamer friendly because of the Wii Motion Plus. The Wii remote becomes your sward while the shield is controlled by your nunchuck and the whole thing is controlled more by your actions than by pressing buttons. There are a bunch of new features that were explained during the presentation such as where your items are stored. You can find your items by pressing down the B button which displays your pocket. The game is filled with great graphics and beautiful scenery. They are still in the development process and it will take through the rest of this year, and the game is expected sometime next year.

Fils-Aime then introduced and gave a glimpse at a few new games that Nintendo will be coming out with. The first of which was Mario Sports Mix. This game involves all the old Mario characters and includes sports games like volleyball, hockey, and basketball. This game is expected to come out in 2011.

Next was the game that Fils-Aime called a Bridge game, the games that get people into gaming, he described these as the games like Mario Kart, Wii Play, Wii Fit etc… and now Wii Party. This is going to be a fun multiplayer game with two modes, party game mode and house party mode. It’s filled with over 70 mini games and a handful of party games. One of the games in the presentation looked to be a spin-off on the game spoons.

Just Dance was released last year, and Just Dance 2 is coming in the fall. In this version there will be more dance moves, dancing duets a just sweat mode, and a dance crew face off. The best thing about this version is that the amount of players able to play has doubled and the game can now accommodate up to eight players.

Disney is planning on releasing a new Wii game this holiday season called Epic Mickey. This game is filled with many of the forgotten and or retired characters and locations, such as Smee (Capitan Hook’s "right hand man" from Peter Pan) and places like the Swiss Family Robinson tree house and the Tiki Room. In this game you have to make the choices and what you chose will affect the characters and the locations. You are given paint thinner to erase things and paint to create. As the presenter explained there will be consequences and rewards for the choices you make.

Other announcements introduced a new Kirby game called Kirby’s Epic Yarn, where all the characters are made of yarn and the scenery is all stitched together. It’s a very cute and different art style and is planned to be released this fall. In partnership with Retro Studios, Nintendo is planning on releasing a new Donkey Kong game called Donkey Kong Country Returns. This game is due out this holiday season as well.

As Fils-Aime remarked about the future of gaming he said its "not raising the bar but making the bar extend far into the distance" This was when they announced their latest technological advance the Nintendo 3DS. This is a huge technological advance and is the first to not require the use of 3D glasses. This new device has two screens similar to the DS with a 3.5 inch display on top. There is a 3D depth slider to adjust the graphics and has a slide pad, motion sensor and gyro sensor. This new device has two camera lenses on the outside and will be able to shoot 3D photos! The device will also be compatible with 3D movies.

These 3D affects added to games will allow for a much better experience in height, width and depth, and you will be able to judge distance better. Connections with other DS systems will happen automatically and no matter what game is being played. Nintendo is working with many third party groups and will be releasing things like DJ Hero, Kingdom Hearts, and games from EA Sports. Looking through the demo it looks promising, but may be straining on the eyes at full level. Also from the quick glance you need to look at the game straight on and not otherwise the 3D affects seem to disappear.

LOS ANGELES – Amid a deluge of new hardware news this E3, Sony unveiled expanded details for their Playstation Move motion control system for the first time Tuesday. Apparently, the Wii style of selling peripherals appeals to them, as it is going to be quite difficult to find everything you want in a single package when Move hits U.S. streets on Sept. 19.

The Move system exists in three pieces – the main controller, which will cost $49.99 standalone:

The PS Eye, which is also required for the system to work at $39.99 standalone:

And, finally, the Navigation controller which will run another $29.99:

While the first two items should suffice for casual Move titles, the more hardcore stuff like SOCOM 4, The Fight, etc. will no doubt benefit tremendously from the Navigation controller. Sony did indicate today that if you are completely averse to buying the navigation controller, you can use your Dualshock 3 with your left hand. However, I can’t imagine this being an ideal or terribly comfortable solution for many game situations.

There are a couple of bundles Sony will be making available: a Move/PS Eye/ Sports Champions (their answer to Wii Sports) bundle for $99.99 and the same package that includes a PS3 Slim for $399.99. Unfortunately, neither of these bundles include a Navigation controller or a charge hub. You’ll likely need a charge hub since the PS3 slim only has 2 USB ports. The charge hub, although not necessary, will cost you another $29.99:

If you’re into it and want to deck your PS3 out right, things will get expensive very fast — especially if you’re interested in more than one set of Move controls. You can use up to four standard Move controllers or two sets of Move-Navigator pairs on a PS3 system at any given time. Obviously, the more controllers you plan on getting, the more charging capacity you will need. Its definitely better than batteries, but it will be interesting to see how Microsoft’s Kinect price for the single device stacks up to all of Move’s various paraphernalia.

Below is the list of Move-supported titles already announced. Sony indicated there will be between 15 and 20 at launch and that the casual offerings will cost $39.99:

First-Party Titles

Sports Champions, September 2010
EyePet, September 2010
Kung Fu Rider, September 2010
Start the Party!, September 2010
Echochrome 2 (PSN), September 2010
Tumble (PSN), September 2010
Hustle Kings, October 2010
Pain! (PSN), October 2010
TV SuperStars, October 2010
The Fight: Lights Outâ„¢, October 2010
The Shoot, October 2010
High Velocity Bowling (PSN) October 2010
Heavy Rain, October 2010
The Sly Collection, November 2010
SingStar Dance, November 2010
LittleBigPlanet 2, November 2010
Beat Sketcher (PSN), Fall 2010
SOCOM 4, Fall 2010
Sorcery, 2011
Heroes on the Move, 2011
Killzone 3, 2011

Third-Party Titles

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, September 2010
Toy Story 3: The Video Game, September 2010
The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, September 2010
Brunswick Pro Bowling, September 2010
Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, September 2010
Time Crisis: Razing Storm, September 2010
NBA 2K11, October 2010
John Daly’s ProStroke Golf, Fall 2010
Racquet Sports, Fall 2010
R.U.S.E., September 2010
Kung-Fu Live, October 2010
Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos, November 2010
Tron Evolution, November 2010

Atlus USA has announced that the RPG, Knights in the Nightmare will be coming to the PlayStation Portable on October 19th, 2010. The game will be priced at $29.99, and will be available  via the PlayStation Network and in stores.

The new version of Knights in the Nightmare includes optimized controls, remastered visuals and sound, and a new opening movie from director Yukio Takatsu, who’s famous for his work on games like Persona 3 and 4.

Peep the official E3 trailer for Knights in the Nightmare, after the jump.

City Interactive of Warsaw, Poland, is one of today’s fastest-growing interactive entertainment publishers, announced its lineup of video games that will be on display during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, June 15-17.  Highlighting the product offerings are two highly acclaimed products for next-gen consoles, Sniper: Ghost Warriorand Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII.

"Thanks in part to the overwhelming reception of Sniper: Ghost Warrior within the industry, retailers and consumers, 2010 has already been an exciting year for us," said Marek TymiÅ„ski, CEO of City Interactive.  "As we continue to broaden our platform offerings and grow our presence throughout North America, we hope to meet with IP owners and development houses whose content is a fit for our portfolio."

Highlighted by playable versions of the company’s first next-gen titles, Sniper: Ghost Warrior (Xbox 360/PC), and Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII (Wii), City Interactive is also featuring the following Nintendo DS titles:

• Crime Lab: Body of Evidence – a deadly killer is on a spree and as a top FBI agent, you examine the crime scenes, collect the evidence and risk it all to capture the killer before another victim is claimed.
• Farm Frenzy Animal Country – manage farm animals, construct new barns for your livestock, and "grow" your farm into a success.
• Jewels of the Tropical Lost Island – set sail in a puzzle-filled paradise as you follow in the footsteps of your pirate uncle to uncover the legendary treasure of the Mayans. 
• Logic Machines — use logic and the laws of physics to construct machines that will aid in the solving of various mind-tripping puzzles.

Patriots fans will have another option when it comes to virtually propelling the Foxboro favorites to the championship this fall.

Video game maker Quick Hit Inc., another Foxboro-based institution, will announce a multi-year deal today with the National Football League to use NFL trademarks in its online football simulation game, Quick Hit Football.

As a video game, Quick Hit bears little resemblance to the popular Madden NFL franchise developed by Electronic Arts. The graphics aren’t hyper-realistic, and there’s very little button mashing. Quick Hit is played by strategically picking the best play for each situation to guide your team to victory. It’s a cerebral take on a genre fueled mostly by adrenaline until now.

The game comes out this fall and is available to play for free in pre-release beta mode at Quickhit.com. The addition of NFL trademarks is expected to provide a serious shot in the arm for the title at launch time.

“It means a degree of legitimacy for Quick Hit that hasn’t been there up to now,” said Brian Ekberg, senior editor and sports game expert at Gamespot. “Releasing a non-NFL football game in a market dominated by Madden is an uphill battle.”

Other companies have released football games without NFL trademarks and have met limited success at best. UK-based NaturalMotion’s Backbreaker football game hit shelves June 1 to mediocre reviews as it has struggled to gain traction in Madden’s market.

Quick Hit had already tapped some prominent NFL veterans, including Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, and even iconic kicker Morten Andersen to lend their names to the game.

Under the new deal, Quick Hit will still not be able to use the names of all NFL players. A separate agreement with the players’ union would be required.

This new licensing deal, however, will let Quick Hit use all NFL teams, logos, colors, uniforms, helmet designs and, of course, the coveted words “Super Bowl.”

Instead of fake teams like the “All-Stars” and “Bench Warmers” players will be able to rekindle real rivalries like Patriots-Colts or Raiders-Chiefs.

The game is free to play and is funded by in-game video commercials and banner advertisements.

More than a million players have registered for the free beta.

Quick Hit is a start-up with about 25 employees, founded in 2008 Jeff Anderson, the former CEO of Westwood-based Turbine. Anderson is hoping the news will give them a boost as they exhibit for the first time at the E3 expo next week in Los Angeles.

“Our goal all along was to develop a realistic football experience,” Anderson said in a phone interview yesterday. “When we first started the company two years ago, we were a brand new business. It was hard to expect anyone to give us anything for granted. We had to go out and earn the respect of the fans.”

Electronic Arts will continue to enjoy an exclusive NFL license on consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In a statement, the company said yesterday that “the NFL has been a great partner for nearly two decades. This announcement has no impact on the relationship we have in place to create great NFL-branded products."

If you’re still into Dance Dance Revolution, you may be happy to learn that Hyperkin (the leading distributor of DDR dance pads) is unveiling their Tough Non-Slip Dance Platform at next week’s E3. It’s the gaming industry’s first dance pad that features a high graded EVA dancing surface that significantly reduces tearing on the dance mat, and the tough dancing surface is curl-resistant so that the dance pad will not curl upwards over an extended period time. Its non-slip bottom is made with a specially designed microfiber material that prevents the platform from moving around on carpet or hardwood floors.

Built with durability, comfort and performance in mind, the Tough Non-Slip Dance Platform represents a new series of dance platforms that will transform the way gamers play Dance Dance Revolution. The Tough Non-Slip Dance Platform is the first dance platform that features intelligent groove-texture arrows on the dance surface. The strategically crafted and placed groove textures allow you to differentiate your steps on the dance surface and provide players with a greater sense of awareness and coordination. In addition, stepping on the groove textures soothe your sore and tired feet. No, seriously.

"Whether you are a complete novice or a DDR expert, the Tough Non-Slip Dance Platform sets the bar for comfort, durability and performance," stated Steven Mar, Hyperkin’s Marketing Director. "This is the toughest dance pad design anywhere, and we’re very excited to see the reactions at E3."

Product Highlights:

• High grade EVA dancing surface significantly reduces surface tearing
• Curl-resistant dance surface prevents dance mat edges from curling upwards
• Foldable pad for easy travel and storage
• Microfiber non-slip material prevents mat from sliding on carpet or hardwood floor
• Intelligent groove-texture arrows allow players to differentiate steps on the dance surface
• Groove-texture arrows give players a greater sense of awareness and coordination
• Groove-texture arrows soothe sore and tired feet
• Multi-platform 4-in-1 connector – compatible with Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, PC/Mac and Nintendo Wii (not compatible with Xbox 360)
• SRP: $69.99