Zen Studios, the maker of all things pinball, today announced a unique rhythm game for PlayStation Vita that mixes dancing with kung fu choreography, and looks quiet fun.

KickBeat involves keeping the beat going by tapping the Vita’s face buttons, while your character engages in battle against a throng of opponents. Depending on the direction the enemy is coming from, you’ll have to press different buttons for your fighter to kick or punch in that particular direction. The game’s soundtrack consists of 18 tracks across multiple genres and includes big named artists like Pendulum and Rob Zombie, and you’ll also be able to import your own music collection into the game.

“Kickbeat is a showcase example of passion, risk and creativity. Traditional publishers might shy away from this type of thinking, but we will embrace it.  After all, what’s the point of working in video games if you just keep making the same one?” said Zsolt Kigyossy, Managing Director for Zen Studios.

Just yesterday, Kung Fu Superstar was announced for Kinect, so not only does KickBeat give us another way to experience kung fu action, but it also gives Vita owners another game to look forward to. We’ll let you know what we think of KickBeat when we get to play it at E3.

One of the biggest questions in the last year has been what Bungie, the studio behind the Halo franchise would do for their next game, the first since leaving Microsoft and the mega franchise they created behind for a new deal with Electronic Arts.  Now, it looks like we’re getting our first look at concrete details for the title, from the most unlikely of sources — court documents spotted by the L.A. Times.

Recently released documents from the upcoming Zampella/West VS Activision trial that resulted in the founders of Infinity Ward splitting from the publishing giant have emerged and confirmed that Bungie is currently developing four  “sci-fantasy, action shooter games” code-named “Destiny.” The first of these games is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2013, with subsequent releases in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Here’s the interesting part, the contract says that the first Destiny game will be released on the Xbox 360 and the “next successor console released by Microsoft” (referred to as the Xbox 720 in the documents), but will release on the PlayStation 3 in the fall of 2014 after a “joint technical feasibility analysis” that will determine whether the game “is able to be developed for the PS3 at quality and feature parity to the Xbox 360 version.”

The documents also refer to downloadable content, known as “comet,” which will release in the  fall of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

Reading through the documents, there are also a few interesting bits not about the Destiny project; like how Bungie stands to make a hefty $2.5 million bonus if the first Destiny game  receives an aggregate score of 90 or better on GameRankings.com. It also says that Bungie will use no more than 5% of its staff to create an updated version of their classic Marathon for E.A.

If the documents are to be believed, and the first game is due out in the fall of next year, an E3 reveal is looking likely. Blast will be bring you all of the up to date information from the Show of Shows as it hits next month.

Nintendo’s press conference is happening in just two weeks! We’ll be there covering it and live-blogging it as it happens, but if you’d also like to see all the action take place live on your screen, Nintendo has you covered too.

The all-access press conference begins Tuesday, June 5 at 9 a.m. PDT and will be streamed on Nintendo’s E3 website. It will also be televised on MTV2 and Spike TV networks. Throughout the week, Nintendo will also be updating its Facebook page with announcements and will be live tweeting via its @Nintendo Twitter account. Videos and trailers will be posted on Youtube as well.

While Nintendo will let you feel like you’re at E3, we’ll be there providing you previews and impressions of everything the big N announces that week. Have anything in particular you’d like coverage on? Let us know.

Source: Nintendo

A QA tester at TT Games, the makers of various Lego titles, tweeted a picture of a Wii U tablet controller that looks a whole lot different from what we saw at last year’s E3.

As you can see from the image to the right, the controller now has analog sticks that have replaced the 3DS Circle pads. The Select and Start buttons have been moved from the bottom of the controller to below the face buttons on the right side. There also now seems to be two additional square-shaped buttons below the D-pad and next to the power button. Click on the image for more detail and compare it to last year’s model below.

Source: Twitter

Crystal Dynamics is pushing back the release date of its upcoming Tomb Raider reboot to ensure your next adventure with Lara Croft is perhaps the best one yet.

One of the most common reasons companies delay the launch of their games is for quality purposes. It’s no surprise then, that Darrell Gallagher, Head of Crystal Dynamics, told fans on the Crystal Dynamics forums that their reasoning behind the delay is to ensure they “fully deliver the very highest quality game.”

“When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about,” wrote Gallagher. “The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of.

“We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. ”

Gallagher also gave us a sneak peek at what we might see at E3 with the inclusion of the above image titled “The Reach.” Last year’s demo showed Lara navigating some underground caverns, so perhaps this year’s playthrough will take her out into the wilderness.

Soure: Crystal Dynamics

Last week we brought you news that Sony confirmed Kratos’ return in God of War: Ascension, a prequel to the popular PlayStation exclusive franchise. Now we’re getting our first look at the game’s multiplayer suite — a first for the franchise.

The announcement came earlier today via a live announcement on the PlayStation Blog. Though not many details were made available, it looks like the new modes will be an integral part of the new game.

Look for more info on God of War Ascension during E3, June 5-7 in L.A.

A new report from the Verge  claims that Microsoft will show off a brand new browser based music service aimed to rival the uber-hot music streaming service Spotify at this year’s E3.

Citing unnamed sources, the browser based project, code named Woodstock will allow users across multiple platforms including Xbox, iOS, Andorid and windows phone to share tracks and create group playlists. It will also reportedly also feature a system similar to Match on the iTunes.

Blast will be at this year’s E3 to bring you all of the up to date gaming — and music streaming goodness.

Nintendo today confirmed its plans to unveil new Pikmin and Super Mario. titles at this year’s E3 in June.

The last Pikmin game came out back in 2004 on the Gamecube and was released again in 2009 with updated Wii motion controls. Eurogamer states that Miyamoto waited to move the third game to the Wii U “because he thought the franchise would be especially suited to HD visuals.”

Also confirmed by Nintendo is that their newest Super Mario Bros. title will, in fact, be based on the playable Wii U tech demo showcased at last year’s E3. The game plays very much like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but the added tablet controller gives players more gameplay options and touch-screen controls.

Stay tuned for more news about E3 in the coming weeks.

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, including 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.