LOS ANGELES — One of the coolest moments of E3 so far was undoubtedly the unveiling of Overstrike, the brand new multi-platform title from Insomniac Games, the studio behind Ratchet and Clank.

Described by studio head Ted Price as a four player co-op with a lot of humor, Overstrike sets players in the role of a “black sheep” special ops team. Players take the role of one of four characters, an ex-merc, a thief, a scientist, and a detective each with unique abilities and characteristics.

No release date has been given, but Overstrike is quickly becoming one of our most wanted titles.

Want to see what the inside of your fancy new handheld look like? Well here you go. Enjoy.

Here yo go folks, the first official, non teaser trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, complete with actual in game footage. Try not to salivate too much.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launches this November.

By now you’ve probably seen the Uncharted 3 teaser, and the Spike TV reveal trailer, heck you’ve probably even seen Jimmy Fallon fumble through the game’s controls in the first live gamplay demonstration last week. Now though, we present Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception in glorious non-moving pictures.

In reality, the screenshots are quite impressive and feature some amazing environmental effects and impressive lighting.

Uncharted 3 releases for the Playstation 3 on November 1 of next year.

One of the most impressive game’s we saw at this year’s E3 was Epic, EA and People Can Fly’s Bulletstorm. Check out this trailer with lead writer Rick Remender and producer Tanya Jessen outline the gmae’s story and characters, and check back later this month for our hands on previews and impressions.

Great Scott! Here’s your first look at Telltale Games upcoming Back to the Future adventure game. courtesy of IGN.

The screens seem to have everything Back to the Future fans are looking for, and the creators, which include original screenwriter Bob Gale are sticking true to the heart of the original game.

Back to the Future: The Game launches early next month for PC, Mac, iOS and the PS3

Enjoy these screens and remember — Save the Clock Tower!

The Twilight Saga is an important part of Blast’s coverage. We have a page dedicated to it. We cover every rumor, news item, do every interview and promote discussion of every aspect of the universe. It is, indeed, the 21st century female Star Wars.

But counter to all that giggling and squealing comes a certain amount of disdain.

The most popular article in the history of Blast and its dozen or so blogs is and remains titled “Twilight sucks… And not in a good way.”

In that article Blast reporter Kellen Rice argues about the writing style of the series, citing “sickeningly purple prose (and) the lack of general writing quality.” But the biggest part of Rice’s passionate argument came not as a literary critic but as a woman.

“The books present a female heroine who can hardly take a step without needing some boy to rescue her,” Rice wrote. “In fact, the books represent sexist views in almost every way, from the fact that Bella gives up her ambitions and plans for college to get married to Edward, the fact that she is portrayed as a modern Eve, begging the noble, moral gentleman for sex while he desires to preserve their virtue, the fact that their relationship is dangerously unhealthy, and finally to the fact that nearly every single female character in the book is a hopelessly negative caricature.”

Kellen got a lot of responses. More than 3,600 comments as of Sunday night have come in the past 13 months, (its follow-up article has more than 1,000). These comments included women saying to her: “All of your opinions are completely FALSE!” and “YOU JUST THINK TOO MUCH JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE !”

And this: (punctuation cleaned up)

“Why don’t you goddamn feminists go shave your legs,” wrote a commenter named Kristen. “If you don’t like the idea of women needing help, then DON’T read the books or go out into the real world, because women should just stay in the kitchen and clean. I’m a girl, and I think women usually do need a man to help them with things, and that’s why we aren’t all lesbians. … Seriously, no man wants a girl who’s all about womens’ rights, so shut up and be happy you can vote.”

At first glance, these comments beg for remarks about the girls eventually attending college to get their “MRS” degree and pump out a few kids. They’re laughable, and to come the comments are contemptible.

But are they wrong?

This back and forth argument is nothing new.

Northwestern University communications professor Janice Radway 1984 book “Reading the Romance” is one of the seminal looks at how women are affected by romantic literature.

Radway’s arguments, written before most “Twilight” fans were born, illustrated that both sides are correct. Romance novels, she argued, have the ability to provide escapism and empowerment for woman, allowing them to dream of and aspire to a “a different life,” or “revolt against male domination,” wrote critical theorist Douglas Kellner, in his essay “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism and Media Culture.” At the same time, however, the books may be understood by some as enforcing traditional gender roles on woman, forcing them to live in a world of female submission to “prince charming” — which is universally seen as an attractive male force.

In contemporary American literature and cinema, no where is this conflict more visible than in “New Moon,” the second installment in the Twilight Saga, due in theaters in November.

In “New Moon,” the male hero, Edward, leaves the female protagonist, Bella, for “her own safety.” Distraught, she goes on autopilot for months, disengaging from reality and eventually putting herself through life-threatening, self-destructive acts to get her man back.

Analysis of Bella’s dangerous rebellion — and author Stephenie Meyer’s writing thereof — can go both ways as well. Some will see “New Moon” as anti-woman and vehemently anti-feminist, while others will see (and have read) Bella’s actions as heroic and empowered.

Kellner touched on the idea of rebellion as well when he cited media scholar John Fiske in writing about how teenage girls in the 1980s saw Madonna’s rebellious fashion statements as empowering examples of how to express themselves.

The only logical conclusion is therefore the same conclusion we can draw in most social science theory: No one’s totally right.

In yet another motion that proves that media companies are completely out of touch with their customers, movie studio Warner Brothers is going to embargo DVD-by-mail outfit Netflix and DVD renting kiosk Redbox from renting new movies to customers for 28 days. This embargo is similar to the 30-day window imposed last week by Twentieth Century Fox, and the 45 day window imposed last year by Universal.

Apparently the movie studios are worried about rentals undercutting the much more profitable DVD sale business. While Mitch Lowe, CEO of Redbox, stated in an interview with the LA Times that he was convinced that Redbox has no effect on DVD sales, our bet “" backed up by nothing more than anecdotal evidence “" is that people who rent movies through Netflix and Redbox more than likely purchase more DVDs than others who don’t, in much the similar way that people who illegally download music purchase the most songs in the iTunes store and from Amazon MP3.

In any case, Redbox isn’t taking this laying down. The company is in the midst of a legal battle with Universal and filed suit against Fox last week. Should the trend continue, Warner Brothers is probably going to get served with a lawsuit of its own soon as well.

We should also mention that not every studio is as thick headed as the aforementioned; Walt Disney and Paramount haven’t really taken a stand on the issue and so are still supplying their movies. Moreover, Lions Gate and Sony have signed deals with Redbox worth hundreds of millions of dollars guaranteeing the availability of their movies on time.

One day, we hope that media companies will realize that consumers want their paid movies and music on demand and under our control. With how little the studios have trudged forward technologically at this point, it’s no surprise that streaming movie catalogues are so crippled, but we still find it unfathomable that our physical DVD rental catalogues should suffer the same fate.

A lot of stories that come out of Africa, no matter how engaging or urgent, get swept under the media’s rug. They get them, assess them and dismiss them.

It’s an obvious truth, most people know that a lot happens on the continent that doesn’t get picked up or spotlighted. Hell, a lot happens in the U.S. that doesn’t get spotlighted so why should we care, right?

In an age of western media where Archie marrying Veronica is a top story (I can’t believe he’s not choosing Betty!), there just isn’t room for tales from the Dark Continent, even though they tend to sometimes be the most newsworthy international exposƒ©.

But that’s OK right? I mean, who wants to hear about horrible, daunting and depressing news when you can read about a historically pimp redhead choosing the brunette with the trust fund? (I’m actually distraught over his choice.)

There obviously has to be some kind of balance, but when stories like the one I’m about to tell you come out, they deserve some attention, even if the next Archie comic development involves Jughead losing his legendary, bejeweled crown for good.

A whole area of the world is ignored and while the problem the people face can sometimes be overwhelming and hard for us to even comprehend, they are still real people, facing real problems and they deserve some real attention and aid.

That may sound hypocritical, since I don’t talk about African news very much on Terra, or report on it very much for Blast. But we’ve been trained by our media to ignore them because they seemingly always have some problem they need help with.

But those constant problems arise from their lack of global attention. In other words, they always have a problem because we ignore them. It’s become a vicious, ruthless cycle that is destined to continue repeating itself with no impending solution, just the looming possibility of it getting worse.

It’s hard to keep track of everything that’s going on the world. North Korea is losing its mind, Sri Lanka has been reduced to wasteland in some areas, Archie is marrying Veronica (I’m not letting that one go), and the U.S. has more crises than you can count on all fingers and toes.

Add another continent and the news landscape becomes too vast, and rightfully so. So it’s understandable. But even if you don’t read too much about the AIDS crisis, the genocide, the malaria, the new, stronger Ebola-like virus “Lujo”, or even the hunger; read this.

Forty-eight albino people have been killed in Tanzania over the last 18 months. No one has been convicted. The killings aren’t random; these Albino people are not just a group caught in a mass genocide. Actually, it is believed by some that their body parts can be used to make magic potions more effective. The albinos must now live in constant fear of being slaughtered.

The violence isn’t solely in Tanzania; last November a six-year-old girl was found dead in Burundi, the BBC reports. All her limbs and her head had been chopped off. Only her bloody torso was found.

In the same month, in Tanzania, two women were hacked with machetes after the attackers failed to find their true targets, children. One of the women was hiding in a refugee camp used to protect people with albinism from this kind of violence. The attackers were looking for her two-year-old child, planning to saw off the baby’s limbs for a potion.

Eleven men have been accused, though none convicted. They were charged with murder and trafficking the limbs to potential buyers. The prosecution also claimed the men dug up buried albino people and harvested their bodies for limbs.

All charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Albinism affects just one in 20,000 people worldwide, though the number of albino people in Tanzania is much higher. Though only 4,000 people are registered as albinos in the country, the number is believed to be as high as 173,000, the BBC reports.

When State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s arrest hit the news, everyone knew that there would be a messy fallout. Other Boston-based power brokers, in the state and city levels, would likely be implicated, leaving the leadership stuck with a major public relations hit and ongoing anxiety. The public, of course, would become increasingly skeptical of their leaders. This fallout was rearing its head today.

Chuck Turner, a charismatic Boston City Councilor,‚  who was arrested last week for allegedly taking a bribe, was all over the news again this week. Not only did Turner hold a press conference to claim innocence and plead for public support, but Maureen Feeney, city council president, preempted that 2:30 p.m. press conference with one of her own.

At 1 p.m., at City Hall’s Curley Room, Feeney said that while she respected Turner’s rights to claim innocence, thought the investigation would render him ineffective as a councilor. Feeney had already, and unilaterally, stripped Turner of his committee assignments.

But Turner, a Roxbury member of the Green-Rainbow Party, said he was being abused by city officials and members of the media.

“Obviously, the press is working to publicly destroy my reputation before I even have an opportunity to have a day in court,” he said. “Since I am being tried by the media and my fellow councilors, I have made the decision to publicly defend myself. That is, I will act as my own lawyer in this media trial in which I find myself. Some argue that I should keep quiet for fear that I may make some statement that can be used against me. So be it! I will not sit back silently and allow my reputation to be ripped to shreds.”

He added, “They are criminals.”

Chris Faraone, writing for The Phoenix, observed the situation.

Turner stepped to his crowd as planned. Even before a working microphone arrived, he launched into a condemnation of his colleagues and the pad-and-camera-wielding culprits who he deems responsible for his predicament.

The crowd was energized. Everyone expected fireworks, as the councilor’s operatives circulated an announcement declaring war against the media. “My main concern is that I am not being tried by a jury of my peers, I am being tried by the Globe, the Herald, Fox News, Channel 7, Channel 5, etc…,” Turner wrote and went on to say

Vocal support rang loudly. Some folks belted pro-Chuck chants, while others were noticeably angrier. When it became obvious that the sound system was busted, one participant suggested that evildoers “Stop controlling the truth and let him be heard.” “Get him a mic,” another person yelled.

Welcome to the surreal state of Massachusetts politics in 2009. It is sure to be a constant stream of drama, accusations, arrests and subpoenas.

The public is left to watch, and wonder who to trust.