Hellgate: London is the first original title from premier developer Flagship Studios, whose team hails from such blockbusters as the Diablo, StarCraft, and WarCraft series. Set in the near future, Hellgate: London introduces a world devastated by a demon invasion. Players are thrust into a desolate city scorched by hellfire where the survivors meld science and sorcery to gain a foothold against the minions of darkness and save the bloodline of humanity. Hellgate: London combines the depth of Role-Playing Games with the action of First-Person titles, while offering infinite replayability and an individualized gaming experience through dynamically created levels, monsters,
Beatmania
Genre: Puzzle/Rhythm
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Konami
Release Date: TBA
Konami has finally started bringing their music games stateside, which means that we gaming fiends can finally experience Beatmania. I'm hoping that this will start a trend, forcing Namco to import more Taiko goodness, and Konami to bring over DrumMania and Guitar Freaks.
For those who are new to Beatmania, the game is Konami's version of deejaying. It plays like Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of using your feet, you are using your hands to hit the keys of their deejay controller, basically a turntable and seven buttons. At the Konami booth, they
Get the MechAssault: Phantom War Trailer off WP (12mb)
MechAssault: Phantom War brings the future of interstellar combat to today’s handheld gamers in a third-person futuristic shooter. Players assume the role of a MechWarrior, an elite fighter trained to control the ultimate war machine of the 32nd century...the BattleMech. Gamers experience fast-action, 3D ‘Mech combat on the top screen, while the lower touch screen positions them inside the cockpit at the controls.
The year is 3134 and after 60 years of peace and prosperity, the Republic of the Sphere is now living in a dark age of ex-communication. Nearly all Hyperpulse
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Redwood Studios
Release Date: Fall 2005
They all just make it look so easy, don't they? The mob, that is. Control of underground criminal activities, a reach that spans cities, the power to make or break lives within minutes, manpower to call their own … oh, yeah, it's incredible.
Most movie mobs, however, don't show you the nitty-gritty side of things, just the raids and the gunshots and the thick accents. But what about getting there? Isn't that half the fun?
Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither were organized crime empires. There's
Genre: RPG
Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Square-Enix
Release Date: TBA
One of the titles I anticipated most before this year's E3 was Kingdom Hearts II, which picks up the story a year after Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The Heartless are back once again, but so are Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Some of the supporting characters from the original game have returned, as well as a few new friends.
For me, Kingdom Hearts was always about two things: the gameplay, and the joy of seeing the Square-Enix characters working with the Disney characters. As far as gameplay goes, a lot of
HOT PXL is a myriad of mini-games (think Nintendo’s Wario Ware) aimed at a more mature, cultured crowd. The rapid fire game play requires players to draw on their reflexes and 2D gaming prowess to get through hundreds of inspired scenarios ? whether it’s blasting through an old-school Zaxxon-inspired game, busting tricks on a skateboard or a BMX, stage-diving at a pixellated concert or simply trying to cross the street. By playing through the main Story Mode, players unlock alternate versions of the mini games which add infinite replayability in the Theater Mode and within the game’s Smart
Based on DreamWorks upcoming animated film, Over the Hedge the game takes players on an all-new adventure beyond the movie as they assume the roles of RJ, Verne, Hammy and Stella and turn a suburban neighborhood loaded with dangerous obstacles and traps into their personal playground. Numerous puzzles and mini-games keep fans busy as they switch between two of the four main characters or engage in two player cooperative play with friends.
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Genre: RPG/RTS
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Liquid Entertainment
Release Date: Summer 2005
One of the weirder revelations coming out of this year's E3, if you're as big a damn nerd as I am – and you aren't, so don't even try to step to this – is that the new Dungeons & Dragons PC games -- Dungeons & Dragons Online and Dragonshard -- are set on, of all places, Eberron.
This is one of the few memorable campaign settings to come out since D&D's third edition hit shelves, because it is, in a way, a fantasy world taken to its natural
Genre: Action RPG
Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: tri-ACE
Release Date: Q4 2005
One of the pleasant surprises about E3 was the presence of the special Radiata Stories localized demo. This game caused quite a stir when it was launched in Japan, debuting at #2 on the sales charts and receiving some astronomical review scores from Famitsu. Import fans were more divided on it; while the game was enjoyable, it was almost totally unlike anyone's expectations. A lot of the micro-management that fans expect from RPGs was simply not there, replaced with what was obviously an experiment in Western-style, open-ended gameplay
Genre: Space Sim
Publisher: 1C Company
Developer: Nikita
Release Date: Q3 2005
This is why you shouldn’t provoke developers. Actually, to be more accurate, this is exactly why you should.
During E3, we got a chance to sit down with 1C and view a slew of upcoming titles they will be publishing in the near future, one of which being the space sim Parkan 2. Not many people have heard of the title, and to be frank I only knew the name and the look as I sat down. As the title was demonstrated, I was told the game overall
Genre: Racing
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Pseudo Interactive
Release Date: Q4 2005
Now this will involve thinking way back, the length of which being painful for some to attempt, but think back to when you were little. Remember how you had the Matchbox cars and imagined them racing each other and doing whatever was necessary to cross the finish line first? Missiles making opponents fly into heaps of rubble, explosions, and ridiculous amounts of violence? Maybe it's just my childhood that was as strange…
In either case, Pseudo Interactive has captured that same wanton destructive glee and digitized it in the
Get the Paraworld trailer off WP (60mb)
ParaWorld is real-time strategy game set in a parallel world between a prehistoric world, where warring tribes and dinosaurs rule, and our world in the 19th century. Using an unprecedented unit management user interface called the “Army Controller,” players play a campaign, where they get to know and play three different tribes (Norsemen, Dustriders and Dragon Clan). As they advance in the campaign, players get to play all three tribes, but in the last third of the game they need to pick the best tribe for the level they are facing. If the
Genre: FPS
Publisher: VU Games
Developer: Monolith
Release Date: September 7, 2005
Pre-order 'F.E.A.R.': PC
E3 is a very loud place, and it’s hard to appreciate a game like F.E.A.R. properly when you’re seeing it there for the first time. While Doom 3 flirted with some survival horror conventions, F.E.A.R. is an outright horror FPS. Instead of just using low light conditions to build a sense of terror, F.E.A.R. goes the extra mile and has your character periodically overwhelmed with nightmarish visions of floating phantoms and seas of blood. There’s also a creepy sense of sound to
Genre : Action
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Rare
Release Date: June 21, 2005
The first time I saw Conker: Live & Reloaded was at Microsoft’s pre-E3 conference in 2004. I will remember it for a long time, if for no other reason than I’d never seen a cartoon dog’s head explode before.
Conker is back. It is still gleefully offensive.
The singleplayer portion of our show is a fully remastered version of the infamous Conker’s Bad Fur Day, an N64 platformer that should not, by rights, exist. It starts with Conker, a somewhat generically cartoony squirrel, getting horrifically drunk and passing out
