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.

The demonstration I attended at E3 focused a bit on the game’s innovations. Unlike previous titles like KotOR2 and Neverwinter Nights 2, Alpha Protocol is giving players a dialog system with a sense of urgency and impact. I watched as the developer demonstrated the dialog stance system, which allowed players to chose a posture but not explicit dialog. While we’ve seen something like this in Bioware’s Mass Effect, Obsidian seems to be taking the system a step further by imposing real time pressure for decision making and a branching but non-looping choice system. Make a decision, the character speaks and the opportunity passes. This means players will have an extra reason to replay the game and alter the outcome.

The game plays from an over the shoulder perspective and “felt” like most omodern action shooters because the core RPG number crunching was obscured. Players can use any of the weapons inthe game and their proficiency will simply modify the ease of use or what “special abilities and shots” you can utilize in combat.

The look of the world was very Jason Bourne-like as well and the graphics seemed very polished even at this early stage of development. I’m looking for good things out of Obsidian and Alpha Protocol looks like one of the games that might just set them apart from their reputational as the tag-along developer who comes in once Bioware moves on.

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.

The demo allowed me to play as three characters: Maria, Simon Belmont, and Alucard. They all of course have their own special moves and such, not to mention a selection of extra weapons. As Simon, you can choose the knife or the cross, which work as a long-range projectile or a short-range boomerang, respectively. So of course, you simply choose your fighter and battle through the rest of the cast, all while the story is explained through expositional conversations between fights.

I’m sure that all sounds straightforward enough, but let me assure that it isn’t. Konami has been claiming that this isn’t a “fighting game,” but that doesn’t excuse that fact that the whole thing feels like a very stripped down Soul Calibur. About the only difference I could garner between this and any other fighting game is that you occasionally have a zombie or something wandering around the arena. Apparently, you can use them against your opponent, but mostly they just get in the way. You also have a very limited array of moves, meaning you’ll probably figure them all out in a couple of rounds, after which they’ll just get old. Eventually, you’ll just end up using the same one or two moves over and over. The fact that even the computer kept using the same exact moves on me repeatedly doesn’t speak well to the complexity of the fighting.

Having to play the game on the Wii doesn’t make things much better. Most games allow you to mash buttons until you get the hang of it. Castlevania Judgement makes you try different combinations of wild flailing, hoping you get a different result. All the moves involve basically holding one or two buttons and flicking the Wii-mote in a direction. Konami has claimed that they chose the Wii for this game so that players could really feel like they were using the different weapons in the game as they played. There are two facts working against this though: 1) a Wii-mote doesn’t feel like a whip and 2) the waggle just overcomplicates things. Even once I was flat out told how to pull off certain moves, just getting the damn Wii remote to register it proved to be a pain. It reminded me of playing a game on an old arcade cabinet with a busted joystick.

I can see how Konami might have thought this was a good idea; hell, it at least sounds like an interesting concept. Unfortunately, if there’s a Wii owner out there that’s really itching to play a fighting game, they’re going to pick up Smash Bros. I really just hope the next 3D Castlevania game they make is, well, and actual Castlevania game; a good one. Konami, you do this, and I’ll be willing to forget all about Castlevania 64.

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.

What amazed me the most though was the subtlety the developers gave to the area. The buildings look dilapidated and such, but the real “something is very wrong here” feeling doesn’t quite hit home until you stumble upon various bodies and signs of executions. Later on, I entered an area where the streets were covered with broken down furniture that I had to sneak through like a maze, all while hearing gunshots echoing from the buildings. The producer explained to me that this signified a time when the Nazis ransacked Jewish homes for any valuables and then chucked furniture out the windows in case there was anyone hiding inside. This didn’t seem evident in the portion I played, but the developers said part of what they wanted to do with this game was show that not all Germans at that time were mindless killers who supported the war.

The story follows the tale of Violette Summer, who is based on a real-life spy named “Violette Szabo.” She becomes an agent for Great Britain’s MI6 after her husband dies in the war and is sent behind German lines to sabotage the German war machine. The game itself though actually begins with her comatose in the hospital with the full story of her past unfolding through her dreams. These of course take the form of different missions; some created specifically for the game, others based on the real Violette’s actual missions.

As for the gameplay, well, it’s pretty much as if Sam Fisher was stripped of his fancy gadgets and dumped into the 1940s. You sneak around in the shadows trying to avoid being seen, which is helped by the fact that your body is outlined in purple if you’re in complete darkness. Your main weapon is a knife, which you can use to sneak up on soldiers and silently take them out with a flashy kill sequence (the developers told me the final game will have dozens of different kill animations). Later you find some WWII-era guns and grenades, but you’re encouraged to only use these when absolutely necessary. Ammo is scarce for one thing, plus, unless you’re playing in easy mode, you have none of the usual aim assists present in most shooters. All this makes you time your shots for that perfect kill, rather than just unloading bullets at your leisure. About the only major difference from other stealth games is the presence of “morphine,” which slows down the world around you so you can take out enemies more easily. It’s kind of a “get out of trouble” button. This is actually worked into part of the story, since this is supposed to represent the nurses trying to calm her down (she even reverts to hospital clothing in this state).

Overall, Velvet Assassin is definitely on the ever-growing list of games that will be lightening my wallet later on this year. The stealth gameplay would be enough to entice me, but after the demo I played, I’m anxious to see Replay Studios’ take on the World War II setting. It’s wasy to write this one off as “just another WWII game,” but the unique viewpoint definitely makes this one stand out.

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.

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.

Fans of explosions and things that go boom will really like the new screens we have of Red Faction: Guerrilla. Almost every single one has something blowing up, which isn’t quite what I associate with Red Faction, but it still looks pretty cool.

I’ve got extremely high hopes for the game, despite being majorly disappointed by Red Faction 2. The original game was a real favorite of mine and my go-to FPS on PC for several years, and then when RF2 came out, it ruined everything I liked about the first game and stripped online multiplayer for no apparent reason.

Guerrilla seems like a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping for a GeoMod comeback.

There is a great big pile of win coming to the Xbox Live Arcade in the next 4-6 weeks, including Bionic Commando Rearmed, Galaga Legions, Castle Crashers(!), Braid, and Geometry Wars 2. Joystiq learned the news from XBLA’s director of digitally distributed games, Scott Austin, during some demo time they got at E3.

Galaga looks amazing, as does Geometry Wars. Castle Crashers has been on many people’s radar since it was first shown back in 2006, so it’s certainly been a very long wait for an Arcade game. Hopefully the wait will have been worth it.

There are no shots at Grand Theft Auto in the the new screenshots of Saints Row 2, but they’re still worth checking out if you haven’t already gotten your fix of violent, open-world games this year. The game looks pretty good, judging by these stills, even if the “Pimps ‘n Hos” gang style thing just strikes me as somehow being pretentious.

I’ve already got a pre-order down on the game (because I’m a nice guy and like to help out the people working at GameStop), but even as big a fan of the genre as I am, I’m beginning to feel a little burned out on this style of open world game. Mercenaries 2 is close to being released, I played more than my fair share of GTA IV, and I still find myself playing Crackdown from time to time. But I can’t help but feel like many of these games aren’t innovating enough to justify their release.

The title of this story sure is a mixed bag for Gran Turismo fans. Joystiq got to speak with the father of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi, and he revealed that Polyphony Digital is focusing on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. He suggested that the proper version of Gran Turismo 5 might not be released before 2010, which somehow wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

Prologue should continue to see significant support, with new cars, tracks, and features. So there’s at least some consolation for GT fans.

But that’s not all — Yamauchi confirmed that Gran Turismo for PSP is still in development, although you shouldn’t expect that until after Gran Turismo 5 is released. So, yeah, it might be a while.

As a huge fan of Super Stardust HD (I’d go so far as to say it’s still my favorite game on PS3), I was really excited about the news that Stardust would be making its way to handhelds. So even though the video is only 14 seconds long, I had to share the debut trailer for Super Stardust Mobile that GameVideos posted this week.

Given the length, it’s hard to extrapolate much, but I do see a number of enemies from HD, including those blasted worms that grow and get faster if you hit their sides. The interface also looks exactly the same as the game’s big brother.

This game more than any other is going to make me yearn for a second analog nub on the PSP. It’s such a shame that it doesn’t have one, because the platform could be so much more viable for shooters of all sorts — twin-stick shooters like this, third-person games like Syphon Filter, or first-person shooters like insert-FPS-of-choice-here.

We’ve got a ton of media on Viva Pinata’s first venture outside of Microsoft consoles. Fine new videos, counting the one above, and more than a few screenshots should give you a good look at what the game’s interface is like and how the graphics look. It’s clearly not a great example of eye candy, but it remains as colorful and friendly as the original Xbox 360 game.

You can check out the screenshots here, or hit up any of the following links for the various videos of the game in action:

Encylopedia
Romance
Sours
Tools

The concept of a mini, episodic-esque game based on a major franchise is really a brilliant idea. Quest for Booty is basically a mini Ratchet & Clank game that will cost only $15, but still packs the punch of a full Ratchet & Clank game — albeit a shorter one.

Insomniac’s Brian Allgeier explains the concept for Quest for Booty in the video above, which should provide you with a solid grasp of what they’re doing with the game. FileFront is also home to a few screenshots for the game, which looks like it’ll be recycling a lot of assets from Ratchet & Clank Future. That’s not a knock on the game by any means, but it seems worth mentioning.

I can understand the worry some people might have that a developer might in the future leave out content from a game so that they can release an episodic version like this after the game’s release. Even with that fear in mind, I’m really loving the idea for this, and I really hope we see more in the future across all platforms.

It has been one crazy week, and the craziest thing happening at home base while Jonathan and Shawn were in LA was the amount of assets we received in our inboxes on a daily basis. I have decided to post the lonely screens and trailers that did not get their very own post into one large post full of links. There’s just is not enough time to post them all, so this is the best way I know how.

While this is not a comprehensive list of what was not covered, it is close. There are more screens floating around out there that we have yet to get, but if or when we do, we will do our best to wow you with them.

Below you will find a list of games from A-N and a link to the trailer or screens for it. Be sure to look over the list carefully, because something you are interested in may be included. I have highlighted ones that may be of special interest.

Games O – Z are posted after the jump

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Screens
Active Life Outdoor Challenge Trailer
Afro Samurai Screens
Age of Booty Screens
Age of Booty Trailer
AWAY Shuffle Dragon Screens
Babysitting Mania Screens
Bangai-O Spirits Screens
Bangai-O-Spirits Trailer
Battlestations Pacific Screens
Bionic Commando Screens
Bionic Commando Trailer
BioShock PS3 Screens
Borderlands Presentation Trailer
Borderlands Screens
BUZZ! Master Quiz Trailer
Champions Online B-Roll Trailer
Champions Online Screens
Chrono Trigger DS Screens
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 Trailer
Cooking Mama World Kitchen Screens
Dark Void Screens
Dark Void Trailer
Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon Trailer
Digimon Championship Trailer
Digimon World Championship Screens
Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Screens
Dungeon Hero Screens
Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero Screens
Empire: Total War Screens
Eternal Sonata PS3 Screens
Eternal Sonata PS3 Trailer
Final Fantasy IV DS Screens
Flock! Screens
Flock! Trailer
Gran Turismo 5: Prolouge Trailer
Heavy Duty Screens
I Am Alive Trailer (This looks rather interesting)
I Heart Geeks Screens
Infinite Space Screens
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Enc. 2 Screens
Kill Zone 2 Trailer
King’s Bounty: The Legend Trailer
LEGO Batman: The Video Game B-Footage Trailer
LEGO Batman: The Videogame Screens
Little King’s Story Screens
Luminous Arc 2 Teaser Trailer
Marker Man Adventures Screens
Marvel Ultimate Alliance II: Fusion Trailer
Mega Man 9 Screens
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Trailer
Metal Gear Online Screens
Monster Lab Screens
Monster Madness: Grave Danger Screens
MySims Kingdom Screens
N+ Screens
N+ Trailer
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 Screens
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja STORM Screens
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja STORM Trailer
National Geographic Panda Screens
Neopets Puzzle Adventure Screens
NHL SK9 Screens

Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers Screens
Our House Screens
Project Origin Demo Trailer
Project Origin Screens
Pure Trailer
Raving Rabbids TV Party Trailer
Rhythm Heaven Screens
Rhythm Heaven Trailer
Samba De Amigo Screens
Samba De Amigo Trailer
Scene It? Box Office Smash Screens
Shaun White Snowboarding Screens
Shaun White Snowboarding Trailer
Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Colonization Screens
Singularity Trailer
SOCOM: Confrontation Trailer
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Screens
Sonic Unleashed Screens
Space Siege Screens
Spectral Force 3 Screens
Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals Trailer
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Trailer
Spore Trailer
Star Ocean 2: Second Evolution Screens
Star Ocean: First Departure Screens
Star Wars: The Clone Wars Trailer
Stromrise Screens
Tales of Vesperia Trailer
Tales of Vesperia Screens
The Sims 2: Apartment Pets Screens
The Sims 3 Trailer
UFC 2009 Undisputed Trailer
Valkyria Chronicles Screens
We Cheer Screens
Wonderland Amusement Park Screens
WWE Legends of WrestleMania Screens
WWE Legends of WrestleMania Trailer
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 Screens
X-Blades Screens
Yakuza 2 Screens
Zoo Hospital Screens

It’d be nice if we got an all-gameplay trailer for NBA 2K9, because that’s really all that matters. But the marketing folks have had their way and have masked the few seconds of gameplay in the trailer above with nothing short of an “OMG Kevin Garnett!” setup that just irritates me as a Lakers fan.

We’ve also got some screenshots up of the game, and they look absolutely incredible. I’m really excited to try the game out as the type of gamer that plays the previous year’s NBA 2K game until the new one is released. I could start nitpicking at things (like an identical fan sitting in the front row of the screen with Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant), but I’ll wait until the game comes out to really do that.

Jonathan and I will preach to you the amazingness that is Puzzle Quest all day long, but I don’t think either of us would ever try to convince you that it’s a good looking game. From what we’ve seen of Galactrix up until now, I still wouldn’t dare try to claim that it’s a good looking game, but some of the new screens from E3 this week have changed my tune.

You can check out a bunch of new screenshots here, including some beauties like the one above, which make me wonder if I’m playing Puzzle Quest or EVE Online.