Michael Thorton has an exciting job. He’s a super spy. Alpha Protocol, the upcoming action spy RPG from developer Obsidian Entertainment looks like it’ll change the dynamic of the RPG genre with its modern setting, believable geo-political story and a few innovations that show Obsidian has learned a few things from its time in the shadow of Bioware and is ready to step forth and make its own impressions on gamers.

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Castlevania Judgement is a fighting game for the Wii that’s set in the Castlevania world…and that should be enough to give anyone pause. The game unfortunately falls into that annoying category of titles on the E3 showcase floor that I picked up out of curiosity, realized I didn’t like, and ended up feigning interest for several minutes while the presenter tried to tell me more about it. Then I usually scurried off the instant their attention went elsewhere. In this case though, even the presenter didn’t seem to care too much. It’s really too bad though, since the concept of the game and a few of the ideas presented in it are a little different and interesting, but the whole package is just terribly executed.

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We just got the E3 trailer in today for the new DS game Prince of Persia: The Fallen King.

To be honest with you, when I heard that they were making a DS version of PoP I was not very interested in the game, but I have to say that after watching the trailer it does look like it will be pretty fun. Of course, I felt the same way when I first heard about a Ninja Gaiden game for the DS and ended up loving it.

Prince of Perisa: The Fallen King is expected to hit stores in November.

Velvet Assassin ranks up there with one of the many happy surprises I had at E3. To be honest, I was a little hesitant about meeting up with Gamecock’s group, since they still linger in my mind as those guys who dress up in capes and chicken masks. As it turned out though, their setup was one of the most low-key at this year’s E3; it was just a discreet area in the Figueroa Hotel. And so I met up with Replay Studios to see their upcoming World War II stealth-action game, since it sounded the most interesting to me. I wasn’t really expecting much, but almost half an hour later, the developers practically had to rip the controller out of my hand to make room for another appointment. However, the whole time the producer and PR director were showing me the game, one word kept crossing my mind: “ballsy.”

Let me explain: the game takes place in Europe during World War II and is being made by a German developer. That’s gutsy enough, but they didn’t stop there. Velvet Assassin is one of the few video games — in fact, the only one I can think of right now — that actually depicts the Holocaust. The level I played through involved you infiltrating the Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews were sequestered after the Nazis invaded Poland, in order to assassinate a Nazi official. The producer was even telling me how he remembered stories his grandfather had told him about when all that happened, which helped him infuse the game with some realism. The more I saw of the game, the more I realized this was not your typical guts-and-glory World War II game.

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It seems all too rare when this happens, but last week saw gamers the world over uniting as one to rise up and boldly declare the same opinion. And that opinion was, “Man, Nintendo’s E3 press conference sucked.” Hell, I was there, and even I was trying not to fall asleep in the stands. So naturally, just scanning through almost any gaming site will reveal a lot of people with suggestions on what they could’ve done better (*cough* Kid Icarus *cough*). But this one from Game|Life takes that cake, in my opinion, with some actual cool announcements like Pikmin 3 and more than just a title card for GTA: Chinatown Wars. Just reading their play-by-play of a much better E3 presentation makes me depressed all over again. So of course, I thought I’d share the misery with all of you. Enjoy.

Image Via Slackerz

The E3 trailer for The Last Remnant was abscent from our inboxes last week, but Square Enix have finally released the trailer from E3 and I have posted it above for your viewing pleasure.

The Last Remnant will be the first game from Square Enix that utilizes the Unreal Engine and is scheduled for a simultaneous worldwide release on November 21st for the Xbox 360 and will eventually land on the PS3, and Windows PCs.

The trailer below was also released at E3, and it is bascially an expansion of the above trailer with more clips of battle sequences and cutscenes.

Finally, after loads of screens and information about Infinite Undiscovery coming out of E3, Square Enix has finally given us the trailer for it. As expected, it is lovely, and will probably get fans of this type of RPG very excited for it.

Infinite Undiscovery is expected to hit retail exclusively for the Xbox 360 on September 2nd.

Some of the games industry’s most influential people are aiming some sharp criticism at the Entertainment Software Association’s E3 Expo.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, EA boss John Riccitiello has had enough of E3’s more intimate setting.

“I hate E3 like this.”

“Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we’ll have to have our own private events.”

Ubisoft US boss Laurent Detoc was less kind.

“E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it’s like a pipe-fitters show in the basement,” he declared.

The E3 Expo has gone from a must attend gala every May hosting 60,000 souls to a much smaller event. Although the E3 2008 was relocated back to LA, only 5,000 attended and several regulars dropped out of the line up including Activision, Codemasters, Her Entertainment, id Software, Lucas Arts, NCSoft and Vivendi.

Nintendo had previously assured its support for E3. However Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that the company’s core games will no longer be showcased at the expo according to GamesIndustry.biz.

“For a very long time, E3 was an event where — and certainly Nintendo included — catered specifically to the core gamer. Now we look at more … an opportunity for us to introduce new concepts and new types of play that we intend to bring to the broader audience, particularly because of the media that gathers at E3 now,” said Miyamoto to MSNBC.

It seems that the E3 Expo of today is missing more than just booth babes. The message from the industry is becoming clear; either the ESA restores E3 to its former glory or the expo will continue to fade away.

So the big question is… will E3 return to its hay day or will PAX take its place as the US expo to attend?

via Eurogamer

There are new screenshots available for upcoming PSN title Fat Princess from E3. This game offers both single player and online multiplayer tactical gameplay. The scenario is your kingdoms princess has been captured by your sworn enemy. You have control of five different types of troops to break down the opponents defenses and bring her royal highness back home.

You can switch between five different character classes literally at the drop of a hat: the fearless Warrior, the steadfast Archer, the mystical Mage, the tireless Worker, and the deadly Priest. In order to triumph, players must combine their skills and work together. The name of the game is cooperation, whether it’s helping another player drag a log back to your castle, manning a battering ram to smash through the enemy’s front gate, or building a human pyramid to scramble over the walls.

As the title suggests, part of your opposition’s nefarious plot is to fatten up your princess. Whether they want to give their own princess a better shot at a power marriage or they’re planning to try out a new recipe; your princess will be a lot harder to get back home than she was to kidnap.

For more information on Fat Princess, check out Sony’s Three Speech Blog.

Sony made a pretty major stride forward by introducing universal IDs. It might seem like a minor feature, but it’s another step towards creating a more unified online service, like the one Xbox Live members have been enjoying for quite a while.

During Sony’s E3 press conference this week, the concept of expanding the PSN universal IDs was mentioned. PSP Fanboy later questioned SCE Worldwide Studios prez Shuhei Yoshida if this meant we might see universal IDs make their way to the PSP. Yoshida responded by simply saying, “That’s the plan.”

If that concept does indeed come to fruition, it would be both incredibly cool and an indirect slap in the face of Microsoft, who has yet to really make the Live Anywhere initiative they touted at E3 two years ago ever go anywhere. Yes, the Zune and Xbox Live Marketplaces both run off the same Live ID and bank of Microsoft points, but they promised quite a lot more, like cross-platform messaging and the ability to monitor your gamerscore from your phone. (Not that you really need to be doing that, as the Penny Arcade strip above shows, but that’s besides the point.)

I’ve got my fingers crossed, as the idea of being able to access my PSN friends list on both my PS3 and PSP, send messages, etc. is an extremely titillating one. I’m actually ashamed it never occurred to me that Sony is in a good position to do a Live Anywhere styled service that would work on the PS3 and PSP.