THQ to Bring The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings to Xbox 360 in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East

THQ have announced today an agreement to publish CD Projekt RED’s  role-playing game, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, for the Xbox 360 . Under the deal, THQ, through its THQ Partners program, will market and distribute the anticipated title in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.

Press Release

The Xbox 360 version will be an enhanced adaptation of the PC game released to instant international acclaim and commercial success in mid-May. It will incorporate numerous improvements and enhancements, of which details will be announced in the coming months.

CD Projekt RED Studio Head Adam Badowski said, “Adapting The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings  Xbox 360 is a massive endeavor for us, and we’re committed to delivering one of the most complex and mature games ever to Xbox 360 players. We believe that with the marketing strength and distribution network of THQ we will be able to make the game an incredible success in Europe and around the world.”

Tim Walsh, VP of THQ Partners said, “We are excited to work with CD Projekt RED to bring this unique role-playing game to Xbox 360 gamers.  THQ Partners’ mission is to work with world class game creators who want to bring their games to market utilizing THQ’s best-in-class global distribution channels.”

Welcome to the Jungle (again) as Push-Start checks out the Far Cry 3 demo walkthrough

If you missed Ubisoft’s E3 conference and wanted to know how Far Cry 3 was coming along, well now you can check it out thank to the gameplay demo being uploaded on Youtube.

As in the other Far Cry games, Far Cry 3 starts off with bad s*** that has already happened and you just happen to be someone getting caught up in crossfire. You are Jacob Brody, who along with his girlfriend has become trapped on a remote island, due to being shipwrecked. Now she’s disappeared and it’s down to you to find her and get off the island before the crazy inhabitants kill you in one way or another.

The demo sees us with Brody exploring his surroundings and come upon a view of a village. Whipping out his camera, he sees hostiles harassing and executing the inhabitants of the village. Snapping pictures, Brody has his guard down and only notices one of the crazy attackers sneaking up on him when it’s too late. When he comes too he is in the presence of a nutjob called Vass, who we can only assume is the leader of the tropical crazies (my name for them insane soldiers that inhabit the island). He starts giving a speech that revolves around the famous definition of insanity by Albert Einstein (“doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”). After a somewhat long winded speech he kicks a brick down a cliff, which just happens to be connected to you via rope, and you go down with it into some water pit to drown along with the rest of captured villagers.

Before this occurred though there were two prompts to have the ropes loosened. Now in the water you get a final prompt to get free before you drown (seems like Brody has been up to date with his breathing exercise as he is able to hold his breath for quite a while). After managing to get free Brody – who is quite rightly angry – decides to take the fight to the crazies, which sees him taking down a soldier and nabbing a gun and end up in a hectic gunfight before escaping a chopper. Almost. A missile launcher sees to it that you don’t get free and Vass makes an appearance, asking you a familiar question. And the gameplay demo ends.

Gameplay looks familiar to Far Cry 2 but more tightened up. It now seems like you can sneak up on the AI more successfully then in Far Cry 2, where they seemed to be able to spot you even when you was well hidden. It helps that you have a mini-map at the bottom left of the screen as this shows you were enemies (and most likely other people and objects) are and you have a alert reticule, that shows if your hidden or not (white means you are, red means to start firing back). The graphics at this stage look fantastic and the move back to a more tropical setting looks to be for the better as their is more vivid colours compared to Far Cry 2‘s majority of graphics composed of different shades of brown. Also not being infected by malaria is welcome bonus.

Far Cry 3 may not reinvent the FPS genre, but it looks set on track on giving us another fantastic collection to the genre. Expect it for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in 2012.

Here is the E3 2011 Far Cry 3 demo shown in full

And here is screenshots taken from the trailer

Recap and thoughts on the Nintendo E3 2011 Presentation

Note: The following thoughts are of Gabriel May’s and are not the overall opinion of Push-Start
Second Note: This time, I will be uploading pictures for this recap. Please be paitent and until then I still hope you enjoy reading it

And so Nintendo finish off the big three’s press conferences. Last year Nintendo gave us a inoffensive and cute press conference with the awesome announcement of the Nintendo 3DS (well when Kid Icarus Uprising was announced). However it was marred by too much talking about themselves and not giving the third-party much room to breathe. Was Nintendo’s keynote speech at E3 2011 an improvement or have they let them selves down?

It all began fantastically with Legend of Zeldathemes being played by the Zelda Orchastra while a video was being played of all the Zelda games in chronological (released) order, including Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Then Shigeru Miyamoto came onto the stage (along with his translator) and what followed was a bundle of Zelda announcements. Basically if you’re a fan of the series then by the end of it your knees would have been quivering and a change of pants would have been in order.

It was all to do with the Legend of Zelda celebrating its 25 Anniversary and it started with the announcement of the Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening being the first game available for the Nintendo 3DS e-shop, which opened today. This was followed that next weekend the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D will be released. Providing you can hold the portable system still, the 3D is absolutely beautiful; you’ll waste quite a lot of time just running around locations because the 3D is jaw dropping. Additonal features include the famous Master Quest and a boss challenge mode. September is the next wait for a Legend of Zelda game to make it’s way to the e-shop but it may just be worth the wait, as it’s the Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords – the mutiplayer Zelda game that appeared on the Game Boy Advance – and will be a FREE download.

As for Skyward Sword, no concrete release date has been mentioned, but Miyamoto did say around the holiday period, which could be November or December. To celebrate the release, Nintendo have planned special gold Wii-mote plus to be available with the game.

Lastly, Miyamoto gave us news about the music of  Legend of Zelda. First the Legend of Zelda Symphony will be holding concerts around the world in the fall (Autumn) and second there will be two music cd’s that Legend of Zelda fans can get their hands on. The first one is the Ocarina of Time 3D OST which is only available to a select number who manage to register the game at Club Nintendo and the 2nd will be tracks preformed by the Legend of Zelda orchestra.

To close, Miyamoto brought on stage people he has worked with, thanking them, his staff and the fans.

Now, if you wasn’t a Legend of Zelda fan, this was a throat clearing “get on with it” part of Nintendo’s keynote speech. But for everyone else, this was a lot of fun. I forgot to mention that Miyamoto had some fun with the orchestra as he got them to play several of the famous jingles that occur in the games (two of them being when you get an item). The only surprising thing was that Skyward Sword didn’t get a huge mention nor did we see any gameplay. I know they did that last year but they had problems then and it would have been a nice reminder about the game. Oh well, what we got – and heard – was still pretty awesome.

Satoru Iwata came on stage and talked about reaching audiences new and old, breaking the boundaries that divide gamers and preluding to revealing Nintendo’s Console/Controller hybrid the Wii U. I’ll be honest and say that these kind of talks bore me a bit so I didn’t take much in.

After Iwata’s speech, we got some funky video game reels (DO A BARREL ROLL!) that preludeds to what Nintendo were about to show us in terms of games we could expect to appear on the Nintendo 3DS. After this, Reggie-Fils-Amie came on stage and my feed goes down due to Nintendo’s official site going heywire for a moment. When it’s sorted I’m watching the end of Mario Kart…So this is the part where I search YouTube…Okay I’m back ans as Gerrard Winter alluded to, it’s pretty much Mario Kart with no vast differences…Which is how we’ve liked it since the series first started on the SNES. As long as it’s no where near the quality of Mario Kart 64 or Mario Kart: Double Dash, we’ll like it just fine.

Next up is Starfox 64 3D and the main talking points were the 3D tilt controls, where if you tiled the 3DS left, right, up and down, your Arwing will respond and go in that direction. With the 3D on this is probably not advisable but it could still be a fun novel feature, especially as some of us do tend to throws ourselves in the direction we want to move to avoid an attack in games. The other talking point was the mutiplayer (which wasn’t exactly a strong point in the original Starfox 64 but nevermind) where you can now not only see your oppopnents faces but see their reactions as the images will be small video screens instead of still picture. If you want to see your friends make a sad face in fuzzy quality, this is the feature you have been waiting for. Everyone else will just buy the game so they can ride the landmaster again.

Super Mario 3D (what is it with these creative titles?) is shown next and Reggie tells us “This is the first 3D Mario adventure created from scratch for a portable system, and once you’ve played Super Mario 3D, I think you’ll agree it incorporates quite a tale.” BAZINGA! *ahem* this looks like a combination of  Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros. The Tanuki suit is one of the main focuses of the game and even the enemies can now weird the power of the Japanese racoon as we saw a Goomba take a swipe at mario with a Tanuki tail. About time the little dudes got an equalizer. As usual, it should be a very good Mario game that will help the 3DS attract a huge range of audiences.

Kid Icarus: Uprising looked badass last year and continues to look badass this year. It is still my #1 reason to get a 3DS and the trailer (despite Pit’s accent being a tad annoying) just made me more excited for it. It looks to have a set of badass characters, the mutiplayer, which pits a team of angels against each other, looks very enjoyable and the game overall looks amazing. The AR feature also looks to be another good novel feature. I still don’t think you can tell how much I want this game.

Now seeing Luigi’s Mansion 2 was a very pleasant surprise. Though the original wasn’t a great game (seriously stop kidding yourself) it was still fun and bringing it to the 3DS instead of the Wii was the right move as the original felt short and a bit lacking (especially for a launch title). Hopefully Luigi’s Mansion 2 will be a bit more meaty and have some very nice secrets. As for the gameplay, it looks to continue the fun of being a Nintendo version of the Ghostbusters. Just one reveal and it’s already a near-purchase title.

Reggie doesn’t have time to go through any other titles, but he does give us a tasty video that briefly shows the following games: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Ace Combat 3D, Tetris, Cave Story 3D, Resident Evil: Revelations, Driver Renegade, Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions, Tekken 3D and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D.

Now something for Pokemon fans. No it’s not a new Pokemon game (surely you can’t have completed Black/White and caught ALL the Pokemon by now?!). Instead Pokedex 3D is almost a meta-game extension of Black and White where you have to fill up a Pokedex (which looks to be more detailed then usual) by swapping with people either using AR cards, spotpass or any other means (possibly direct trading). You can also take pictures with your Pokemon. I won’t judge that last feature. Pokedex 3D is only availble in the e-shop and (thankfully) it’s free.

Now it’s time for the most confusing part of E3, let alone Nintendo’s keynote speech. The introduction of the Wii U, Nintendo’s newest console (I think). Before the unveiling of the new system, Reggie talked about how the Wii got it’s name because it was a console that was catered for everyone and introduce the Wii U as a system that is great for everyone and perfect for you. Then came the picture of the Wii U…Well actually it was the controler. It looked like a SNES pad that had gained fifty pounds and had additional buttons. In the middle was a screen that would be the main focus of the Wii U. We were then treated to a video to demonstrate the Wii U.

We see someone walk through the door and act like a douche in telling him it’s time to watch some baseball (this is why you get two TV’s folks). Instead of glaring at him, Wii playing dude *shrugs* says okay and we’re set to watch baseball…Except the camera pans down and we see the Wii playing dude pick up the Wii U controller and resume playing Super Mario Bros. Mii (I know the title due to hindsight) He now becomes the Wii U playing dude. If your a quick observer you’ll notice he was never playing on the Wii but was actually playing on the Wii-U! He was just looking at the big screen instead of the Wii U controller.

Now we get set to see it’s features such as being able to draw, use the screen to play games such as Wii Sports, use the screen as an aiming device when attached to the blaster peripheral which shows it is backward compatible, use to monitor your weight, make video calls, share pictures and videos by just flicking the content to the TV screen and browse the internet on TV by using the screen. Oh and you can play Othello, just in case you were hoping for exciting games. Yes you can also play Nintendo Wii games using that. Nintendo haven’t forgotten to include that part yet. The Wii U will be available in 2012.

Iwata comes on stage and goes more in-depth about the Wii-U such as how you can play games and that it is NOT a portable games machine. we then hear from Miyamoto his thoughts on the new system. Iwata then talks about third-party support but before we get to that, we hear a bombshell of an announcement that a Smash Bros. game is being developed for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS! This gets the biggest reaction from the crowd though Iwata kind of lets us down by nothing even having any concept art. He best not be trolling.

More talk about the Wii-U from Reggie with him telling us “Stating that Wiiu will play the way you change games is a pretty bold assertion, so this week we’re providing pretty tangible proof.” which leads to Reggie announcing that E3 attendees can experience eight interactive experiences, not games, to see the potential of the Wii-U. Well 3DS tech demos worked a treat last year so I guess it’s an effective strategy to showcase the Wii-U. We are then shown a pretty CG video of a bird flying through an area of Japan, picking a sakura flower form a tree, dropping it into the lake which seems to signal a huge fish to jump out of the water. I guess this was to show how good CG intros could be on the Wii U. That or a new Sega Bass Fishing game from Sega is being worked on.

A few games are revealed to be for the Wii U. The first one is the aforementioned Super Mario Bros. Mii, which seems to just be Super Mario Bros. Wii but this time you can have your Wii play alongside Mario and crew. Shield Pose where you swing the Wii U controller left and right blocking arrows and hope to God you don’t swing to hard and take out a window. Chase Mii is a multiplayer game with one player holding the Wii U controller and is tasked from running from up to four people who play using the Wii-mote. However, the Wii U player has the advantage of being able to see where everyone else doesn’t get that luxury. Lastly is Galactic Fighters, game with “”galactic fighers” shooting up at a ship, while the pilot in the ship is shooting back down.” Reggie says the game is hard but addictive and right now I’ll take his word on it.

We get a glimpse of Lego City Stories and instantly I get the impression it’s GTA Lego. Just without the violence and sex. If it at least allows some sort of carnage in a Lego cute way then I will start to look forward to Lego City Stories.

We now get comments from third-party developers, telling us why the Wii U is awesome, which leads to some kickass reveals of games being available at launch for the Wii U; Darksiders 2, Tekken: Wii Successor, Batman Arkham City, a new Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online. I expect there to be more revealed in the coming months but this is a fantastic start. Tekken: Wii Successor and Batman Arkham City would be on my list of games to purchase with the new system. We are treated to some videos showcasing some new titles as well as those that have been revealed; Darksiders 2, Dirt, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online, Metro Last Light, Tekken and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge (working title). The last one got a huge “whoop” from the crowd. It also seems that Nintendo is starting to embrace mature games as we saw just as many violent games that are available for the Nintendo Wii!

EA’s John Riccitiello came on stage to give a talk about how Wii U will make their games better. Nothing much here except that it seems Nintendo is really hoping to gain more third-party support it seems.

Reggie is out and he finishes the presentation by talking about Nintendo’s recent gaming systems (Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U) and to check out the Nintendo Network and that’s everything. Amazingly the keynote speech was just over an hour, around 30 minutes less then Sony and Microsoft’s and yet it seemed to contain just as much info, if not more.

Conclusion: Well Nintendo says Wii U but it felt like “Wii Me” as Nintendo did what they did last year; focus mostly on themselves and only give the third party support a tiny bit of attention. As a result we mainly saw games from Nintendo themselves and though there was more their party mention then last year, it felt brief compared to Nintendo’s own products. Also the Wii U was so confusingly presented that only now are we beginning to realize fully what the damn thing is. Still, what did hit the spot hit it pretty damn well, with the 3DS games looking fantastic, especially Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Kid Icarus: Uprising, while the Legend of Zelda section just plain awesome. Also in hindsight, the Wii U does show promise (though Nintendo can thank the third-party games being shown). Nintendo still know how to charm and their conference was the most fun. As such it was (just about) the best show out of the big three.

Thoughts on the Sony E3 2011 presentation

Note: The following thoughts are of Gabriel May’s and are not the overall opinion of Push-Start.

If you want to read an in-depth recap then I urge you to check out Daniel Williamson’s look at Sony’s E3 2011 presentation right here, as he did an impressive job.

Last year Sony delivered a very good (if not great) presentation in E3 2010. There was energy, excitement, and detailed look at games that weren’t a major IP (Sorcery) and some nice surprises (Twisted Metal). It may have started to run out of steam towards then end (until the aforementioned Twisted Metal was revealed) but overall it was a fun press conference. So is this year’s line-up any good or will it simply be the case of business as usual?

Uncharted was up first and well it looks good. I’ll come clean and say I haven’t played the first two Uncharted games so my excitement for this title is neither high nor low. With that said, it did look as we saw Drake sneak around a boat and seemingly get captured but at the last minute get away with a well placed head butt and grenade throw…Of course this also makes the ship go into Titanic mode and we see Drake trying to escape while getting assaulted by falling ship debris. It was a very exciting set piece and should get fans storming their subway to get a taste of the game. The last sentence not make sense? Well (Americans) will be able to get access to the “complete” multiplayer by going to Subway. Jared will be pleased with the results (look at me with my American cultural knowledge). The 3D trailer also looked nice, even in non 3D; Sony didn’t send Push-Start a 3D TV with 3D glasses so we had to make do.

Last year Killzone 3 got the spotlight and now this time Resistance 3 get it’s chance to shine. We didn’t see much (three minutes of ambushing aliens and then trying to get away with a “power core”) so those not convinced with Resistance 3 won’t be swayed here. Around five-eight more minutes of gameplay over different environments would have made Resistance 3 a lot more impressive looking.

There was a brief mention of the God of War PSP games (Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta) as well as ICO & Shadow of the Colossus being remade in HD and 3D for the PlayStation 3. While I can see ICO & Shadow of the Colossus only being given the slightest of mention, I did think Sony dropped the ball on only giving  the God of War 3D+HD remake a passing mention, which is amazing considering that God of War has really helped Sony’s consoles over the many years. A trailer showing Kratos kicking ass and then saying “Now in 3D and HD” would have gone down really well.

If $499 is a price that you would pay for a 24 inch 3D monitor (that comes with 3D glasses, Resistance 3 game and cable) then Sony has you covered. You only need the glasses because optical surgery to see 3D without glasses hasn’t been invented yet? That will cost you a naughty $69.

Anyone can play NBA 2K12, even a basketball player such as Kobe Bryant, who was brought on to demonstrate how using the PlayStation Move for NBA 2K12 – a feature called “NBA on the move” which must have had the staff laughing at their own wittiness – is easy. It looked kinda awkward but I guess with practice your reflexes would improve to quickly be able to select who to pass or have to defend. There’s really no need to talk about the game itself because fans of the series will have pre-ordered it and selected their dream team, while those who aren’t (like me) are wondering how Kobe Bryant demonstrating a Final Fantasy game would go.

Medieval Moves: Deadman’s Quest is up next and it’s from the creators of Sports Champions, which is “the best selling Move game”…Because I remember there was a lot of choice when the PlayStation Move was released. Ahem, anyway Medieval Moves viewpoint reminds me of the Neo Geo game Crossed Swords. As you wield a “bow and throwing-star wielding character who moves through levels (on rails) and must solve light puzzles to progress.” You have no inventory, instead picking up weapons on the go. The levels will have branching paths and secret room where you can stockpile on items. It looks decent but I could only see young children getting a lot of enjoyment out of it while older gamers may get bored of it. That is unless there is a lot of charm in the characters and story to keep the player hooked.

inFAMOUS 2 still looks badass and since I’ve seen so many gameplay videos and demonstrations (including at Eurogamer 2010), I’m willing to let it slide that all we were shown was a kickass trailer. Also since the game is out today (in North America) there was no need for any detailed talk about it, though there was mention that you can also use the PlayStation Move to create missions on inFAMOUS 2, just in case that was what kept you from buying the game.

Oh and you can now do the same for and LittleBigPlanet2, in case that was what…You get the idea.

CG trailer of Starhawk looked interesting but I guess we’ll have to wait till next major video game convention to get a better idea of the game.

How weird is it that I’ve never played ANY of the games, and yet within a few seconds of seeing the trailer, I guess it was to do with Sly Racoon. I just guessed the art style was something Sly Racoon would be associated with.

Dust 514 is from the creators of Eve Online (The MMO choice for scheming champions). What I got from the presentation is that it is a FPS that will be connected to a Eve Online. In other words events that happen in Dust will affect what happens in Eve. It sounds really ambitious and if it works, it will be a huge step forward in the world of MMO (which has gotten pretty stagnant). Judging from the trailer, Dust 514 looks to be a very good FPS itself, as the graphics looked really sharp. This maybe a title to keep an eye on.

Quick look at Bioshock Infinite. Elizabeth still looks hot in a Bioshock way, the game looks to be awesome and it will now support PlayStation Move. Yes that’s right, the main talking point of Bioshock Infinite was not about the game itself but how Irrational Games went from cynic to believers about how the PlayStation Move can enhance the gameplay. I know Irrational games couldn’t really talk about the game itself (multiplatform games don’t get that pleasure on platform specific press conferences) but it was till kind of annoying to see a trailer of the game and then having to hear about why the PlayStation Move is so great. At least say why the Move will make using plasmid powers so awesome dammit. The exclusive bonus of the original game being included is a nice bonus but I do find it funny that BioShock 2 wasn’t included.

Saints Row 3 gets a very small mention. Boo.

Sony got to reveal a new Star Trek film that will tie in with the coming film next year. By the looks of things, it is third person. The footage was pre-alpha so I’ll overlook the rough shape of the graphics displayed in the trailer.

PlayStation 3 next revealed it’s exclusive deals it’s reached with EA, with SSX having an exclusive track down Mt Fuji, Need for Speed: The Run’s exclusive bonus being seven super cars and Battlefield 3 will include a free copy of Battlefield 1947. Will be interesting to see what the Xbox 360 versions offer as an exclusive bonus.

Kazou “Ridge Racer” Harai came on to talk about the NGP…Well he would eventually after the obligatory hardware talk of Sony’s recent consoles. Finally though he unveiled the NGP and straight away Sony make their first mistake for the new portable device by having it renamed to the PS Vita. Yes the NGP is a bit generic and also stands for Neo Geo Pocket, but it also rolled off the tongue and just sounded right. Besides I don’t think many remember the Neo Geo Pocket. Well I’ll get over the name so I’ll stop ranting about it.

Not a surprise to see the portable version of Uncharted being used to show off the PS Vita. But it’s not surprising as it really does look smooth and the option of using touch screen controls combined with traditional controls is a pleasant feature and very well implemented. Plus if you have a phobia of touch screen controls, you can just use the standard controls. The success of the Uncharted franchise looks set to continue.

Street Fighter X Tekken looks fantastic on the PS Vita and the inclusion of Cole MacGrath as a exclusive character may seem like an odd choice at first but seeing him in action (albeit briefly) quickly eliminates any doubt as he looks pretty badass. The fact that it supports cloud-based technology is a nice feature to as is the simple command feature. Hopefully the analog and/or directional pad will be more suited to beat ‘em ups then the PSP was.

For more information about the E3 presentation of the PS Vita, click here.

Conclusion: Say what you want about Microsoft but at least they are punctual. Either that or hackers got to Sony again which lead to their delay. Still when the Sony Press conference did finally kick off, we got an enjoyable press conference with some very exciting games announced, as well as more information on the NGP…I mean PS Vita. If there was one huge fault, it was that there was a lack of energy which made this year’s presentation inferior to last year’s. The best example was for the PS Vita, which should have had it’s speakers at least somewhat excited and yet it was quite subdued. Only Yoshinori Ono and to a lesser extent Travis Williams from San Diego Studios gave off some energy and while the PS Move wasn’t as excessively plugged as the Kinect was at Microsoft’s presentation, it still felt it was shoehorned at times. Overall though core and casual gamers were addressed and the PS Vita is looking more attractive with each mentioning. But no Kevin Butler?! What’s up with that Sony?

All the PS Vita information from E3 2011

Sony’s E3 2011 presentation has just ended and with it came a wealth of  information for its next generation successor to the PSP, the PS Vita.

That’s right, it has been confirmed that the NGP will now be called the PS Vita. Whenever people will complain, prefer it or just not care remains to be seen.

Before the games were shown, Kazou Harai talked about the features of the PS Vita, going through what most of us know (slide pad, dual analog sticks, sexy shape) to explaining some of the more fun features such as Party where you can communicate with your friends and see what game they are playing and the Near app, which tracks your location and shows you where you;ve travelled. It also connect with other PS Vita users to show you what popular games are being played, what else is being played. It will also allow you to buy the games that are being shown. Handy if you bumped into a Monster Hunter group and wanted to join in (you know a Monster Hunter game for the PS Vita is inevitable).

Of course it was the games most of us wanted to know about and only a few were shown more then briefly but they looked promising. Not surprisingly, they began by showing Uncharted and demonstrated now just how smooth it ran but how the touchscreen controls enhance the game. Those worried about that not being the case can take comfort that traditional controls can still be used. Sony must see Uncharted as one, if not the, key demonstrations as to why the PS Vita is an essential purchase and you can’t blame them for pushing the media to check it out at every opportunity.

Next came Ruin which is a an action RPG. It does look like PS Vita’s answer to Diablo which is no bad thing as long as they get the looting aspect done right and make sure the combat doesn’t become too repetitive. The developers, San Diego Studios, were keen to point out that other players can suddenly appear and not just help you but instead become your rival. It seems you’ll be able to influence the level design and thus a dungeon you went through could be different for another player and vice versa. It also sounded like you would have a lair and successful defending of that lair would allow you more loot and expereince. Finally you can resume gameplay on the PS3 thanks to cloud technology. Ruin looks like the game for those with a dungeon crawler itch to scratch.

Modnation Racers was also shown and while at first it may have looked to be a port or remake, we were told that this was not the case at all and instead it was a new Modnation Racers game built up from scratch. The main selling point was the touch controls being used to make track creation more efficient and quicker and it really did look like it would do the trick. Now if the power-ups are improved then Modnation Racers could become an essential purchase.

The last game to be shown was quite a surprise as it was Street Fighter X Tekken with Yoshinori Ono himself providing a demonstration. We know this was being available for the PlayStation 3, but we got a shock when it was announced that a PS Vita version was also being made, which included simple command inputs allowing for the quick and easy way of launching special attacks. But that wasn’t the only surprise as Ono announced that thanks to a deal with inFAMOUS creators Sucker Punch, Cole MacGrath would be an exclusive character! So I guess that means Blanka won’t be included this time. Cole looked pretty badass and fitted well with the characters in Street Fighter X Tekken.

Other games being mentioned included LittleBigPlanet, which hopefully the PS Vita version will be just as comprehensive as its PlayStation 3 brethren (and judging by the trailer we saw, That will be the case) as well as Wipeput 2048, which will have a feature called crossplay which will allow 8 players to face off against each other using either the PS Vita or PS3. Sony announced that 80 titles were being developed for the PS Vita. This should mean that soon after launch, we’ll be seeing an impressive amount of first-party and third-party games.

In terms of availability and price, the PS Vita will be available this holiday season (hopefully a worldwide release) and pricing is $249.99/€249/¥24,980 for the WiFi only model and $299.99/€299/¥29,980 for the 3G/WiFi model.

The PS Vita is shaping up to be one hell of a portable games machine and hopefully we’ll get a lot more details on the games that will be released at the same time or just after it’s release. As more information comes, we’ll keep you posted here at Push-Start.

Recap and thoughts on Microsoft’s E3 2011 Presentation

Note: The following thoughts are of Gabriel May’s and are not the overall opinion of Push-Start.

Last year’s E3 presentation from Microsoft had its moments but was letdown by the throat-shoving style announcement of Kinect (and its games), embarrassing presentations and a lack of attention to the core gamer. So lets see if Microsoft have stepped up their game or have learned nothing and will deceiver another weak E3 showing.

Remember how impressive Call of Duty: Black Ops gameplay trailer was last year? Well it was the same for Modern Warfare 3, where we saw gameplay footage of sneaking into a submarine after swimming through and past debris, kicking terrorist ass inside the sub and then seeing chaos taking place in a city (which I think was New York…a favourite place of First-Person Shooters) where missiles where bombarding buildings and gunfire was a common sight. It looked impressive and maybe, just maybe, the single player will be just as worthy as multiplayer instead of a throwaway mode.

Next up Was Tomb Raider: Uncharted…Oh sorry, it’s just Tomb Raider. But I can’t help it if it gives me Uncharted vibes, from having surviving a crash of some sorts (this time being shipwrecked) to the admittedly quite impressive set pieces that occur. Also this is being described as a reboot but the way Lara Croft sounded, it was more of a prequel, since she comes across as a teenager. Her voice does seem like it could get grating after a couple of hours.

By the time Tomb Raider had finished it’s showing Microsoft realized too much time had passed without Kinect being mentioned and they fixed that immediately with Peter Moore coming out to tell us that EA Sports will be bringing out four Xbox 360 sports games series that will have Kinect support; FIFA, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL and a game that EA Sports will announce later. Oh and just incase you casual gamers where feeling left behind, Moore also announced that Sims 3 Pets and Family Game Night 4 will also have Kinect support. Of the three known sports games, Tiger Woods PGA Tour makes the most sense, since it requires the least amount of effort and will be a welcome addition for golf fans who can’t afford (or be bothered) to play on a golf course. For Madden if you think what was missing from the past installments was phsycially being able to call out the plays, then the Kinect support will make sense too. Of course anything more then that and you might as well play the actual sport itself, same for FIFA. As for Sims 3 Pets and Family Game Night 4…Nothing really needs to be said other then why bother.

Mass Effect 3 was shown and wouldn’t you know it, it had Kinect features (a trend that would occur throughout Microsoft’s E3 presentation). Now instead of manually choosing dialogue you can say it outloud and instead of fussing about selecting what your AI party should do and what powers they should use, you can just shout it and Kinect will understand you instead of wondering why you sound like a dork. But hey if it helps gameplay who am I to judge. As for how the game is looking it’s looks like they just left off where Mass Effect 2 ended…and there is nothing wrong with that because just in case you forgot, Mass Effect 2 was an awesome game.

Tom Clancy Ghost Recon: Future Soldier had one of the best trailers as it started with a soldier exploding a transport vehicle and then time stops and we zoom around the area seeing other soldiers Murder Death Killing terrorists in various ways in what is a coordinated attack and while this is going on classical music is being played. Hopefully Push-Start will have it uploaded soon. The impressing didn’t stop there has we were shown how Kinect would have an impact on the game and for gun nuts, they will have a field day as the modification screen – which apparently 20 million unique weapons can be made – can be used by either gesture, voice or a combination of the two. You can even test it out which may indicate that Ubisoft may have figured out how to have a FPS game work on Kinect. Just due to the modification aspect alone I see this being a huge seller.

There was the obligatory “Kinect makes Xbox Live that much more easier to navigate”. If you saw Microsoft’s presentation last year then you get the just of how this works. Xbox now has a partnership with YouTube and Bing, the latter helping you to search for games easier. A bit handy if you can’t be bothered to move and use Google.

Dana White, President of Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is the #1 Mixed Martial organisation worldwide, came onto the stage to promote UFC features being available on Xbox 360 and Kinect. You can check out more details right here.

A Microsoft presentation wouldn’t be complete without Gears of War 3 being shown and it was a duet between Cliff Bleszinski and “legendary” rapper Ice T as we see them get down to playing some Gears 3. It didn’t look too different from the previous Gears game but if your a fan of the series (or loved the Multiplayer beta) you’ve already got this on your pre-order list. Before the Gears of War 3 presentation wrapped up, Ice T said he had a present for Bleszinski in the form of a new song for Gears of War 3. It wasn’t revealed yet so you’ll have to stay tuned for an update.

Another series that has to make it’s way to a Microsoft E3 presentation is Halo and it’s Halo Combat Evolved: Annivasary Edition, a HD remake of the very first Halo. That’s right, for the first time in ten years, you can experience the frustration of the Library level. Well according to the trailer, the campaign has been remastered but I doubt they’ll take away the rage that people experienced when going through that mission (personally I loved the seemingly neverendingness of it). In terms of how it looks, it looked like a PlayStation 2 game. Hopefully that’s due to the video quality and not the actual game quality. Well Halo being Halo it’s going to sell well regardless.

Forza Motorsport 4 gets a look at and it’s clear they are gunning for Gran Turismo’s crown in best simulation racer. If you beileve what the trailer says, all of its features are “Epic”. It looks nice but I’m neither excited nor against Forza Motorsport 4 due to  never playing any of the games in the series.

Now a new Fable game is something that would get me excited and Fable: The Journey sounded epic. Unlike 99 per cent of people who have played Fable, I enjoy Playing a Fable game where the promises are broken or half-true. But the Fable we got wasn’t Fable 4 or a extension but a Fable that has been reduced to act like a lightgun game you’d find in your local arcade. Dammit Peter, I don’t want to be sitting down pretending I’m riding a horse and then wave my hands in the air pretending I’m firing spells or slashing goblins (or were they orcs…). If I did, I would go LARPing, which would be less embarrassing quite frankly. We don’t need another Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Kinect game. For more details check out this link.

Xbox 360 owners jealous of PC owners having time to waste in building stuff out of blocks while avoiding things that explode and skeletons shooting arrows at you will be glad to hear that Minecraft (The most successful incomplete game of all-time) has come to their console. Oh and it has Kinect support. Which I would scoff at but since some clever chap actually showed it could be done back when Kinect started selling, I’ll just shrug and move on.

And now onto my favourite part of the presentation, Disney Adventures. I just love the concept of this game in that you can promise your kids that finally, they will be able to go to Disneyland and see all their favourite characters and then come the day, you whip out this badboy and the kids finally realize what you meant. So who cares if your friends and your soon to be ex-wife ask “so you can afford a Kinect and several games but not to go to Disneyland?” This game will save you so much money, time and moving energy. I’m also glad to see that Microsoft has not learned a single thing since last year’s infamous Kinectimals fiasco in that kids and kinect games do not make a good presentation. It can’t just be me with the urge to punch something or stab a pen through your hand so that your scream blocks out the children’s exaggerated response when I see stuff like this go down. Seriously who says “Oh we’ll get those coins next time”?

More Kinect promoting as we saw Kinect Star Wars and good God someone needs to sort out the attacking animation. I know Hayden Christensen’s performance was wooden in the Star Wars prequels but doesn’t mean you need to realistically incorporate. Still, Star Wars fans won’t give a damn as saying “Lightsaber…On” and becoming the new age Star Wars kid will make up for any shortcomings this game will have.

Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster actually looks like a very good Kinect game for the family and the “father and son” presenting the game actually came off really well, even if the kid looked goofy when doing a monster roar. Well I can’t be too harsh on every casual Kinect game now and it does look like it’s done a good job of incorporating the show we all know and love.

The legendary Kudo Tsunoda came on stage to promote Kinect Fun Labs and before we get onto that I gotta say that Tsunoda looked like he went through one hell of a bar crawl. I know he wears shades a lot but the ones he wore looked like he just woke up ten minutes before he was to be on stage. Also didn’t help he had a epic beard going on. Moving on, Kinect Fun Labs is Kinect tools available at the comfort of your living room couch. What we were shown were easier avatar creation (I forgot the tool name the presenter used), finger tracking and object tracker. For now they look like gimmicky, novel tools but if they can be used to make fancy Kinect games then all the better. Artists are sure to get a kick out of the tools. Oh and Kinect Fun Labs is out today!

Kinect Sports: Season Two gets a look at and it does look…cute. Maybe it’s because I liked the Baseball game on Wii Sports that makes me attracted to the game. Also the winning animation on Golf (fist pump and Michael Jackson style kick) is adorable. Still the Football presentation was just awful. Do I really have to shout and then move like a sumo wrestler or run like a bunch of killer bees are after me to actually play that? If that’s the case then Kinect Sports: Season Two only comes with four playable games in my opinion.

Second to last we get a quick look at Dance Central 2, you know the sequel to the “only reason to buy the Kinect” game. It’s more of the same really but then since Dance Central is actually fun and most of the Kinect games aren’t hitting the mark, we’ll let Harmonix off.

And Microsoft close with a teaser trailer of…HALO 4. Xbox fans all over the world have an orgasm and now forum boards are (or will soon) be flooded with analysis of the tease trailer. I would tell them it’s not being developed by Bungie but they wouldn’t be able to hear me over the furious keyboard fapping…I mean tapping.

Conclusion: Its like Microsoft left off from last year and just carried on. Kinect was again the main focus of the show, despite Microsoft trying to be subtle about it in the first half of their presentation and again a heavy focus on the main franchise players of the console (Fable, Forza, Halo, Gears, Halo, Call of Duty etc). It wasn’t horrible and despite my Kinect bashing at time there are titles and features to be excited for (Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports: Season Two, UFC  features) as well as games for the console itself which have me waiting in anticipation (Mass Effect 3). But it wasn’t great either and they made the same mistakes they did last year. if you missed it, you don’t need to kick yourself as their wasn’t anything truly memorable.

“Let’s get it on!” UFC comes to Xbox 360 and Kinect

Earlier on Microsoft’s E3 2011 presentation, Dana White, President of Ultimate Fighting Championships made an appearance to promote UFC being available on Xbox 360 and Kinect.

What he showed us was something that was simple but for UFC fans (which includes me) amazing; first you’ll be able to look at the profile of the fighters, complete with significant stats. Not only that but you’ll be able to order fights to watch and can even “call matches” in deciding who wins and how. Each correct choice earns you points and you can see how well your doing against your friends on a leaderboard.

So not a earth shattering announcement but for UFC fans, it’s something that is pretty exciting.

SQUARE ENIX Unveil E3 2011 Titles

Square Enix has announced today its videogame line-up for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 7th-9th 2011

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May MCM Expo 2011 Gaming report

Another year, another May MCM Expo, the biggest annual nerd gathering in the entire United Kingdom! And of course where there’s nerds there’s bound to be video games, and where there’s video games there’s an excuse for game journalists to do overly descriptive write-ups in order to make up for a slow  pre-E3 news week. So we at Push-Start present to you the 2011 May MCM Expo Gaming report!

Just as a forewarning though, I apologise profusely if some of these photos I took ain’t of the best quality; as anyone who’s been to the MCM Expo will attest to, the event hall fills up to well over maximum capacity very quickly. This little nuisance gave me no room for a tripod and a very limited amount of time to get some photos before it became too crowded to do so. Also I suck at photography; that possibly didn’t help.

If there’s one thing you’re going to see more than anything else at the MCM Expo, it’s questionable and deeply disturbing instances of cross dressing. However, the next most common spectacle is mouthwatering (or sometimes cringe worthy) merchandise of every possible shape or form. A vast majority of it is  aimed squarely at anime addicts who apparently need to buy the stuff in order to survive, but as there’s a rather large crossover between those guys and gaming fanboys, it meant that there was still more than enough gaming loot to go around too.

Only a few stalls were selling actual games however, and usually it was rare (but reasonably priced!) SNES/N64 titles or GameBoy bargain bins. The rest of the gaming stuff was mostly action figures of varying quality and value, many of which could easily be obtained from larger gaming stores these days, that is if you don’t include the stuff from…..

The Square-Enix stall! It seems rather than showing off any new software (possibly because they don’t really have any at the moment), Square instead opted to showcase and sell items from their Play-Arts Kai range of gaming figures. As you might expect, a lot of the stuff on show was indeed Final Fantasy related, but there was also a huge amount of high quality merch based on popular 3rd party IPs such as Halo and Metal Gear Solid! Utilising both my inhuman self control and the looming threat of an expensive trip to L.A for E3 next week, I was able to resist bankrupting myself at this point; allowing only an inexpensive Metal Gear wall scroll from a nearby stall as my soul extravagance of the day.

As with every nerd gathering like this, cosplay (dressing up as fictional characters) plays a big part of the show. There’s not barrier for entry or anything, you could throw on a cowboy hat and call yourself John Marston if you wanted to. As a result most of the costumes tended to vary between: “ok”, “Bought on eBay” or “JESUS CHRIST BRO, PUT SOME DAMM CLOTHS ON!” For the sake of your sanity I shall not elaborate on that last one.

Of course there were a few rare standout instances of brilliance that were no doubt the result of genuine dedication and some fairly deep pockets, but the only one that made me stop in my tracks and whip out my camera was this incredibly authentic looking Duke Nukem impersonator in the photo above, who came complete with double babe accessories! And yes, I think the one on the right is going to give the Duke a bit of a surprise if he takes “her” back to Duke HQ tonight.

But enough of that silliness, now it’s time for what really matters: what games could you actually PLAY at the Expo? Well I take my hat off too Nintendo for putting together what was easily the most impressive booth at the show, ominously titled Nintendo UNLEASHED. “Man, I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I took of this sick Nintendo booth!” is what I wish I could say at this point, however after taking the above picture I was then informed by Nintendo event staff that there was to be ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOGRAPHS WHATSOEVER. Yes that’s right, Nintendo didn’t want a certified member of the press taking pictures of their elaborate demo both (complete with blogging desk for journalists) at a publicly accessible event. So rather than using pictures of what games they had on show, I shall instead paint beautiful mental image within your minds eye using only the almighty powers of written word! Or you could do a Google Image search; it’s up to you really.

Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

This one was probably the most interesting of the lot, although sadly not for good reasons. Back when it was first announced it held the not so prestigious distinction of being literally the ONLY RPG on the Wii that wasn’t a sequel or a franchise extension, although I have heard that it’s in some ways intended to be a spiritual successor to the prematurely ended Xenosaga series on the PS2. Those of you either gasping with horror or jumping with joy at that thought should probably calm down; if there were really any similarities between Xenoblade to that convoluted Sci-Fi space opera then I was sadly unable to notice them. Instead it appears to be a much more down to earth run of the mill fantasy JRPG, full of spiky hair and adolescent boys with cartoonishly massive swords. The combat system was equally cliche; a free-form open world MMO style affair that’s very similar to Level 5’s surprisingly popular White Knight Chronicles.

The only thing about it that I found really striking was the graphics, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I’d seen a fair few screenshots of it every now and then over the past year, so I had a general idea of what to expect. However it wasn’t until I saw the game in motion that I realised something: the graphics are absolutely hideous. Yes, I realise graphics aren’t everything and that the Wii isn’t exactly a powerhouse, but honestly the amount of aliasing and  the ultra low-poly environments were deeply reminiscent of low tier PSP games, or at the very least some mid range PS2 titles. If “Project Cafe” really is as powerful as the rumours say, then Xenoblade is going to paint an extremely harsh contrast to whatever first generation JRPGs end up on that thing.

Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS)

A curious choice considering this game is already wildly available. Either way, I won’t bore you with outdated but still very bouncy details, that’s what reviews are for.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3Ds (3DS)

For once I’m actually forced put my cynicism aside, I’m still extremely annoyed that Nintendo would rather remake an old game than work on original projects for the content starved 3DS and all that, but they’ve really done such a bang up job on this title that I can’t help but be impressed. From what I’ve seen, It’s immediately evident that a lot of love and care has go into updating this classic for modern sensibilities without losing the experience that made the game so iconic in the first place. What’s more, the massive graphical overhaul looks extremely smooth yet subtle, providing a fabulous showcase of the 3DS’s capabilities as a high end handheld gaming device; something that it sorely needs at the moment. I think without a doubt this will be the fledgling platform’s first “must have” title for both returning fans as well as those (such as myself) who missed out on Ocarina the first time. And second time. Oh, and the third. Yeah, and that fourth time to.

I would’ve loved to have some juicy hands-on details to go with that sales pitch I just gave, but in true Nintendo tradition there were only a handful of active demo units of it available, and unsurprisingly a prohibitively long queue quickly formed around them. Yes, Nintendo tend to make a habit of this sort of thing; the 2 hour line up for the single curtained off demo of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword at last years Eurogamer was a testament to that.

Wii Play: Motion (Wii)

If when reading the name of this title you instantly assume it’s just another soulless collection of crappy minigames that Nintendo will then bundle with something useful in order to ensure that it climbs up the sales charts on no merits of it’s own, then you are a deeply pessimistic individual that really needs to chill out. You’re also totally correct by the way, so let’s not dwell on this one.

Solatorobo: Red The Hunter (DS)

It was a bit of a weird choice by Nintendo to showcase this thing; I think they might have been running out of ideas at this point. Solatroobo is a spiritual successor to an obscure PS1 game called Tail Concerto, and much like that game it seems to be a very bare bones action-adventure game where you play as an anthropomorphic dog riding a giant robot of some kind. The graphics and art-style are fairly impressive for a DS title, but combat seems rather limited; consisting of nothing but picking up and throwing enemies at each other over and over again until they explode. Judging by that, I’d say it’s quite possibly aimed at kids rather than people like me who are old enough to actually remember what the hell Tail Concerto was. Interestingly enough, it’s actually developed by CyberConnect2, who are more commonly associated with stuff like this or this rather than furry shenanigans.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D

I’ve been told this was playable at the booth somewhere, but I somehow managed to miss it even though I walked through the booth on several occasions. It makes me feel kinda dumb considering it was probably one of the most significant games of the show in many respects, and easily the one I wanted to play the most!

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Why Warner Brothers Interactive felt the need to built a gigantic booth to promote a game that’s been on sale for ages (by video game standards anyway) is anyone’s guess. Again, if you want to know more, then just read our review.

Wow, at least they also set up this cool looking Arkham City stand surrounded by other Batman related apparel! This must mean they had the game playable right? Nope! Instead they had Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, which I’m sure you’re probably thinking is just as good if not better! Well sorry to burst your bubble, but I regret to inform you that it’s apparently nothing more than a mediocre God of War style character action game, much like Marvel’s Thor: God of Thunder. The only interesting gimmick it had going on was the drop-in multiplayer co-op, so unless both you and a friend have a massive hard-on for the lantern, it’s probably worth avoiding.

Making it’s official debut in the UK, SUPER Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition made it’s presence known with one of Capcom’s signature huge open booth/lounge things, which I’m fairly certain contained several people playing Marvel vs Capcom 3 instead. I know this probably goes without saying and stuff, but SSF4AE (to give it it’s “short” name) looks a hell of a lot like SUPER Street Fighter 4. In fact it’s fair to say anyone who isn’t a fairly serious practitioner of Street Fighter would struggle to tell how it’s any different at all besides the addition of 4 “new” characters, two of whom are mealy alternate versions of Ryu and Akuma (because there just ain’t enough of those ya know?).

But that’s to be expected considering many of the major enhancements in SSF4AE are distinctly under the hood jobs such as minor balancing tweaks or extra options for online multiplayer battles. Obviously if you’re part of the competitive Street Fighter scene then Arcade Edition is a must buy as it will likely be the new torny standard from here on out, however I’d advise the more casual players to just wait around for the next full-on title in the series rather than get involved with this stopgap entry. However if you’re still interested in upgrading to Arcade Edition then don’t go rushing out to trade-in your vanilla version of SSF4 just yet; in addition to a stand alone retail title, Arcade Edition will be available as a relatively inexpensive DLC pack for owners of the …uh… Un-Arcade Edition. You may also be interested in the little sneak peak we managed to get of the achievements!

I think Red Faction Armageddon was both a pleasure and a disappointment really. The awesome Geo-Mod technology that allows you to pull apart your surroundings bit by bit looks even more awesome than it did in Red Faction: Guerrilla, and now many of the new abilities and weapons leverage that tech by allowing you to turn just about any piece of nearby junk into improvised projectiles. However the gameplay seems to now be confined to dark narrow corridors instead of the bright wide open sandbox world that Guerrilla used, and what little narrative the series had has now been forced down the rather generic humans vs aliens route. Unfortunately without a much more extensive session with the game it’s still too early to tell if this new direction is a good or a bad thing for the series.

[Sadly that random ghost guy in the photo isn't part of some elaborate special effect they had going on; the place was getting rather crowed at this point so it proved exceptionally difficult to get a clean shot of the booth.]

In a moment of raw stupidity I totally forgot to actually go inside this booth after getting a photo of it, but that might be for the best as I only have a very limited amount experience with the series and am thus not exactly the most qualified person to comment on how Fea- sorry I mean F.3.A.R compares with it’s predecessors. However from what I can tell the basic premise seems to be the same as before; it’s a first person survival horror shooter that relies VERY heavily on tightly scripted events to spook the player when they’re not busy unloading lead into something fleshy and/or bullet time diving across the room. The only major new feature that I know of is that former antagonist Paxton Fettel is now playable, and he relies on less conventional combat techniques such as demonic possession and telekinesis in favour of just more dakka. Wow that actually sounds pretty cool now that I think about it…….. dammit!

The GameSpot UK booth near the centre of the convention hall was for some reason almost entirely full of demo units for games that were playable at other the other booths I’ve mentioned so far. However, tucked away in one corner I did find a playable build of Shadow of the Dammed. Considering it’s the latest game directed by developer mega stars Goichi Suda (AKA Suda51) and Shinji Mikami, you’d think they’d make a bigger deal about having it there, but I guess that would’ve meant less room for another Mortal Kombat unit. Anyway, it was a pretty unique game; a Resident Evil 4 like 3rd person shooter, but with a wild Devil May Cry sort of punk motif and a heavy dose of cheesy grind house horror styleings. Defiantly one to keep an eye on!

In a more obvious position they also had an Xbox 360 Kinect version (also available for PS3 Move) of Child of Eden. Sadly I didn’t get a chance to play this as it was being hogged by a 3 year old in a Thor costume, which I think everyone nearby silently agreed was far too adorable to interrupt but would also look far too creepy to photograph. But anyway, it’s an easy enough game to describe as it’s essentially the same as it’s PS2/Dreamcast predecessor Rez; a first person on-the-rails shooter with an extremely funky art-style and music that changes dynamically to what’s happening on screen, only this time it has gimmicky motion controls that will make you appear rather silly when playing it. It certainly looks very nice indeed, and I imagine fans of Rez will be instantly drawn to it, however I think the more typical gamer might find it’s simplicity a little bit off-putting. Although that’s not to say they’re exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to decent Move/Kinect stuff at the moment, so perhaps they might bite the bullet on that one.

As per tradition, hack’ n slash specialists Koei had a huge presence at the show, once again demonstrating their inexplicably strong fanbase in the UK. Unsurprisingly the first title of theirs that caught my eye was the one about giant robots, namely Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3. Now I’ll be the first to point out that not much (read: almost nothing) has changed on the gameplay side of things since previous version; you still just chose a character then mash the square button while stuff explodes on screen, but by God does looks a hell of a lot better than it did before! They finally decided to drop the rather shoddy looking CG art style and have instead gone for a far more appropriate anime like cel-shaded look. I was so impressed by this new art direction that I may indeed give the series a second look, even after Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 turned out to be a boring grind fest even by Dynasty Warrior’s lofty standards.

Then again I’m sure there’s plenty of Gundam fans out there who only care about who’s playable in this edition rather than what it looks or plays like, so hopefully they’ll be pleased to hear that the roster has been significantly expanded with new mecha from more recent iterations of the Gundam franchise such as Unicorn and 00, as well as previously overlooked classics like Stardust Memory and Wing. To be honest it’s still about as niche a game as you can possibly get, but I think they’ve done a much better job of properly appeasing that niche on this occasion!

Koei’s other big showpiece was their new PS3 exclusive title Bleach: Soul Resurrección (yes it’s really spelt like that, I have no idea why) and, to the shock absolutely no one on the planet earth, it has more than a passing similarity to Dynasty Warriors. Again, all you do is chose a Bleach* character then button mash your way though hundreds of enemies while some crazy J-Rock blares away in the background. Childishly simple? Yes. Satisfying? Also yes. Koei should probably just make that their official slogan.

*For those of you that are 19th centaury time travellers or something to that effect, I’m referring to the absurdly popular Japanese anime/manga franchise, and sadly not the chemical solution.

Uh.. yeah. They also had demo units of Champion Jockey open to the public, which I have to say was truly a sight to behold. In fact, so overwhelming was it’s magnificence that none could find the strength within themselves to even approach close enough to actually play it. Even then, I dare not even try to describe what I saw from my distant vantage point for fear that I would mealy sully it’s divine majesty with my crude mortal words. What I’m trying to say here is that is was a game about riding horses, so no one gave a toss.

Although this isn’t really a game in itself, I don’t think I could ever talk about a Koei MCM Expo booth and not mention the ungodly amount of flyers they hand out here every year. Sadly I forgot to pick any up for myself this time, but I kid you not that my bounty from previous Expo visits decorate my wall in a manner not too dissimilar from this image of the booth itself.

Another traditional Expo participant, members of DDR UK where out there strutting their stuff on some obscure Japanese import rhythm action games with their usual brand of reckless abandon. That is, except for one booth that seemed to be playing some kind of Smash Brothers style party game simultaneously on 3 separate TVs. I didn’t ask why, hell I’m not even sure if real time communication is possible with whatever plane of existence DDR maniacs call home.

While not technically available just yet, I think a large amount of the people who actually care about this game have already been in the beta test or at the very least have been binging on footage from it. If not, then there’s always our beta impressions article to get you up to speed. If even that proves too arduous a journey for you, then here’s the lowdown: you still play as a brown space marine who hides behind brown chest high walls in order to shoot at brown stuff in the brown distance with your brown guns in a much better looking but still predominantly brown environment.

Relative newcomers Zen United had quite a small (for a publisher) booth, but it was rather hard to miss due to the… “interesting” colour scheme they had going on. Since stepping onto the scene they’ve more or less acted as the European representatives of fighting game developer Arc System Works, and as such are mostly known for handling the European localisations of the Guilty Gear and BlazBlue franchises. However, as I’m sure you can probably tell by this photo, they had their hearts set on hyping up the lesser known Arc System title Arcana Heart 3 that day.

It’s essentially your standard anime fighting game, only with an entirely female cast designed around various “moe” stereotypes, as well as a unique gimmick where your available special moves are determined by a combination of which character chose and what elemental “Arcana” you select to support them in battle.

Oh, and bizarrely those PSP demo stations housed the soon to be very irrelevant port of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger rather than its upcoming (as in, it’s out today in the US) successor BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II; not sure what that was about.

Atari’s booth was a bit of a sorry sight as it only had two very minor downloadable titles on display. The more interesting of the two, not that that’s saying much mind you, was Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale. It’s a fairly mundane but functional dungeon crawler action RPG that I can tell was defiantly trying to do an impression of the long forgotten Dark Alliance PS2 games. But unlike those games of yore, just about every aspect of its combat system, user interface, setting and overall design can easily be filed under “painfully bland”. Supposedly it’s the first in a trilogy of titles, but judging by it’s current critical reception I wouldn’t be surprised if this district of the Forgotten Realms stays forgotten.

The game next to it was called Warlord, which, unless you’re either quite knowledgeable or pushing your mid 30s, you probably won’t recognise as a remake of an old school Atari 2600 title. It seems to be yet another part of Atari’s recent initiative to make poorly received XBLA remakes of every retro IP they haven’t lost during one of their many financial crises, so I hope you’ll understand why I chose to invest my time elsewhere rather than get some hands-on time with it.

And finally we finish off with Konami, who just like every other year were very busy drawing in new addicts for their long running Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game. The only actual game they had on show was Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Decade Duels, which to cut a long story short is very similar to the fantastic Tag Force Yu-Gi-Oh games on the PSP, only with all the good parts taken out and a bunch of overpriced DLC packs thrown in to take their place. While crappy games are never a good thing, Decade Duels is especially depressing for fans of the recently expired “5D’s” series of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, as this will almost certainly be the last game to bare that title before it gets replaced with the comparatively rubbish looking Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

And so there we have it! That’s just about all video game stuff I was able to lock my eyes on at the event. Tune in again later this year for the October edition of the MCM Expo Gaming Report, where hopefully we’ll see some as of yet unannounced E3 titles take centre stage!

London MCM Expo 2011: What To Expect

Tomorrow kicks of London’s MCM Expo 2011 and finishes on Sunday the 29th. At the event there will be lots of interesting things you may want to get your hands on so we have all the details you need for the 3 day event.

First of all here is the layout of the Expo so you don’t get lost!

 
Here is what to expect on the Games Stage, some Q&A’s to get all your gaming related questions answered.

Now Nintendo are packing in a punch with their section and bringing Dead or Alive Dimensions, Resident Evil and the incredible The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D. Other titles available to play include Xenoblade Chronicles and Wii Play: Motion on the Wii and Solatorobo on the Nintendo DS.

The stand also includes a blogging zone so you can go straight online and tell everyone about the latest gaming sensation you just tried or the new move you just mastered.

Not only will Nintendo be bringing a punch but also… the Green Lantern with Rise of the Manhunters for Xbox 360, PS3 and DS.

Capcom will also have the anticipated Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition on show.

We haven’t heard anything else from THQ other than Red Faction Armageddon being available.

Check back over the weekend for some video’s and images from the event. Hope to see you down there.