"SKATE 3 is just too big to have been released as a downloadable expansion," producer Brian Lindley tells me of the sequel announced just shy of eight months after SKATE 2 arrived.

"We're adding several new features and a entirely new city in Port Carverton, so SKATE 3 is an all-new experience," he says. Among the various additions are a focus on team play, new tricks, the Skate.Park editor, the Skate.School training mode, and new challenge modes designed around co-op.

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And just how does this focus on forming the "ultimate team" affect the single-player portion of EA Black Box's stick-flicking skateboarding sequel... Read more

A few weeks ago, I stopped by Gearbox's offices to play Borderlands for a few hours. Since then, the wait to play more of the shooter-RPG has grown increasingly agonizing, and the five new gameplay clips released today (below) only make it that much worse.

While my time with the game was brief, it made quite a strong impression on me. By the time I had to go, I could already feel the addiction setting in--that drive to slay just one more foe, to do just one more quest, to gain just one more level before leaving.

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My adventures began in the Arid Hills, where I and the other three members of my team were tasked with retrieving a certain number of seeds from a nearby cave. It sounded like a simple quest--no one told us that we'd be ambushed by a Level... Read more

I've probably previewed StarCraft II more than any other game. It seems every few months I get another taste; a shot of hard 'Craft that inevitably makes the wait even more difficult.

Unfortunately, though my second trip to Blizzard last month preceded the official announcement of StarCraft II's delay, it was already pretty clear this game was not going to ship in 2009. Beyond the vagueness surrounding Battle.net, portions of the singleplayer campaign were also somewhat unfinished, with lead designer Dustin Browder admitting that one entire system was being reworked from the ground up.

But I'll get to those gory details later. In more exciting news, I was able to play the first four or five missions of the singleplayer campaign, this being the first time we've gotten our hands on it. I even snuck in some time with the skirmish mode, discovering a few new features in the process. The shorthand: it's all looking pretty great.

As fans are no doubt aware, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty begins with series hero Jim Raynor operating as a mercenary fugitive. The first level has the... Read more

With the next major update to the Xbox 360 dashboard coming August 11, Microsoft has provided us with an early look.

Chief among the additions is the new Xbox Avatar Marketplace, which allows users to purchase items for their virtual Avatar, such as my Monkey Island-inspired garb there.

That outfit ran me a total of 360 Microsoft Points ($4.50), broken down as follows:

• LeChuck Pirate Hat - 80 MS Points ($1)
• Meat Hook Pirate Eye Patch - 40 MS Points ($0.50)... Read more

Nobody buys baseball cards for the gum, and nobody's going to buy BioShock 2 for the multiplayer. So it is not a condemnation to say that, while 2K Marin's BioShock 2 shows great promise, Digital Extremes' BioShock 2 multiplayer component is looking like a lackluster experience.

For starters, the modes on tap only extend to free-for-all, team deathmatch, and an unannounced thing. A lot is riding on that mystery mode, because as it stands, BioShock fans likely won't find the deathmatch to be any more than a one-round curiosity.

It's not that Digital Extremes isn't bringing anything new to the table. The whole multiplayer mode has been placed in a fairly attractive wrapper. Users play as a character inside Rapture, with a 3D apartment serving as a pre-match hub. A bathysphere attached to the pad serves as the gateway to actual multiplayer matches. It's an optional element--players can skip to the action if they wish--but certainly more interesting than the gameplay itself.

Inside the well-modeled apartment, audio logs from plasmid development company Sinclair Solutions introduce new weapons and abilities. As you level up in the multiplayer--accomplished by earning ADAM via kills and other tasks... Read more

A full one quarter of the demo stations in Nintendo's color-free booth is dedicated to the recently announced New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is exactly what you'd expect from a multiplayer Mario game--Mario, Luigi, and a couple Toads simultaneously running from left to right, hopping over pits, collecting coins, and stomping on koopas. It's not exactly a co-op game, and it's not necessarily competitive, either. It's whatever you make of it. If you're so inclined you can bounce on your friends' heads, steal their power-ups, or even pick them up and toss them down a pit. If you're not a jerk, you can just play the game as you would any other platformer.

At the end of each level each player is ranked based on... Read more

Judging from a lengthy E3 demo, BioWare's Star Wars MMO plays like a Knights of the Old Republic sequel. From dialogue to combat, its production values are on par with the developer's singleplayer efforts--which is saying quite a lot, considering that it's also planned to be a massive, full-featured online game.

Running on live servers back in Austin, The Old Republic already seems like a realized world. In the first segment, BioWare producer Dallas Dickinson ran us through the world of Hutta, beginning the game as the Bounty Hunter class.

BioWare's target is to make this the first MMO to squarely focus on story, and immediately impressive were the dialogue scenes, the first initiated with an NPC quest-giver. The camera cuts back and forth as characters converse, with a minimal, Mass Effect-style radial menu providing the response options. Every scene in the game is fully voice-acted, and the end result is that the MMO plays more or less like a singleplayer experience.

Even more impressive was the addition of a second party member. When talking to NPCs in The Old Republic, the other players in your party will also be participating in the conversation with their own options. So while you might... Read more

As the ferry docks in the decrepit amusement park, complete with the ruins of ferris wheel poking above the rows of run-down and long-shuttered booths, I find myself already facing one of those tricky moral conundrums Fallout 3 is known for. Do I explore this fascinating post-apocalyptic wonderland, or head off to that mansion on the hill?

Fortunately, in this instance, it really doesn't matter. At roughly one-fifth the size of Fallout 3's initial game world, the entirety of the new landmass that the June 23-due Point Lookout DLC adds to Bethesda's action-RPG is open from the start, enabling you to ignore that quest about the ghoul in the mansion and just explore the wetland.

That lighthouse out in the distance? That cathedral on the hilltop, ever-so-slightly obscured by the murky haze that permeates the swampy area? Go for it... Read more

At the end of an extremely long line at E3, you'll find several demo stations running an impressive and lengthy demo of SCE Santa Monica's PlayStation 3 beat 'em up God of War III. And while it looks and feels very similar to previous games in the series, it's shaping up to be the biggest, bloodiest, and best-looking God of War yet.

The demo starts off with Helios, God of the Sun, flying his flaming chariot around the head of a massive titan. After the introduction, I took control of Kratos to find a city in turmoil, full of fleeing citizens and marauding monsters.

By default, Kratos still uses the chain blades with deadly proficiency, but I also used a couple of his alternate weapons. There's a bow for ranged attacks... Read more

It is no longer be a spoiler to say that Commander Shepard, hero of Mass Effect, lives in Mass Effect 2. Despite the clever teaser trailer, he is again the protagonist.

"We've always said we wanted to create a story about taking one human through [a huge story]," said Mass Effect 2 project director Casey Hudson during a lengthy demo of the game. "And that human is Commander Shepard."

As planned, players can carry over their saved data from Mass Effect, with character choices and gameplay decisions impacting the events of the dark sequel.

The real surprise coming out of E3, however, is that it also isn't a spoiler to say that Commander Shepard dies in Mass Effect 2. ... Read more

The announcement of a Dead Space game on the Wii was initially met with more trepidation than excitement from fans of the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of the game. On one hand, Wii owners have every reason to be excited about having a game full of bloody zombie aliens instead of doe-eyed, super deformed children. On the other hand, some of us had legitimate concerns about how well the dark atmosphere and excellent presentation of the original would hold up on the technically inferior Wii hardware.

I played Dead Space Extraction recently at a pre-E3 press event at the Electronic Arts offices in Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised at just great well the game looks and plays. Once you accept the inherent limitations of the game's rail-shooter design and start shooting aliens and watching them explode in gory, satisfying fashion, you might start enjoying Dead Space Extraction almost in spite of yourself. ... Read more

"It's not supposed to be the game that's gonna replace your big games, like Battlefield 2 or 2142," producer Gordon Van Dyke tells me of the upcoming Battlefield 1943. "It's more action-based and it's not as heavily [focused] on the strategy, per se."

Powered by the Frostbite engine--the same technology that was behind last year's destruction-happy Battlefield: Bad Company on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360--the downloadable multiplayer shooter packs remakes of three Battlefield 1942 (PC) maps.

But make no mistake console Battlefield fans, this isn't just Bad Company with three different maps. Even though it uses the same overall technology, the gameplay has been tweaked, focusing more on fast pick up and play action than strategy.

Those that have played Battlefield 1942, you're in for some surprises too. Sure, you may know the maps by heart, but the addition of destructible environments changes things a bit. A fence blocking your progress? Go ahead and knock it down with... Read more

It's quite obvious that Sony and developer Titan Studios are aiming for the funny bone with their upcoming PlayStation Network title, Fat Princess. But after playing the game at a recent pre-E3 press gathering, I found that Fat Princess has more to offer than a couple cheap laughs.

While the irreverent humor and cute art style certainly take center stage throughout the experience, the unique blend of action and real-time strategy that makes up the gameplay in Fat Princess is the real star of the show. It's a funny game, but more importantly, it's also a fun game.

When I first started playing Fat Princess I couldn't help but make the connection between this game and one of my favorite and unfortunately oft-forgotten... Read more

Sony recently showed off the latest title in the acclaimed PixelJunk series of quirky downloadable games at a pre-E3 press briefing in West Hollywood. Although PixelJunk 1-4 was revealed last week, it hasn't yet been given an official name. Name or not, the game was playable at the event, and looked to be pretty far along in development. PixelJunk 1-4 has players piloting a small craft through a series of subterranean caverns interspersed with pockets of magma and water. The goal of the game is to safely navigate each stage and use the ship's grappling hook to pick up survivors who are scattered throughout the level. Exactly what kind of ordeal these orange-clad guys have survived, only to be stranded deep underground, is still a mystery.

The game controls similar to dual-stick shooters like Super Stardust HD, but the focus of PixelJunk 1-4 is on problem solving rather than blasting endless... Read more

With a pair of $800 sunglasses instead of an AK-47, Nathan Drake wouldn't have been terribly out of place on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, where Sony recently held a pre-E3 press gathering to show off Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

But while Drake obviously wasn't there in the flesh, an army of his clones was present on a bevy of Bravias to demonstrate the new multiplayer and co-op modes in Naughty Dog's upcoming PlayStation 3-exclusive sequel. That's right, multiplayer.

Multiplayer is a distinct set of missions set apart from the single-player story. In co-op, you can team up with two friends to complete missions, all the while shooting bad guys, climbing around, and working together to take part in typical team-building exercises like moving large objects or boosting one another up to otherwise... Read more

"If you can hear me, wake up," says Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum over a pitch-black screen, our first glimpse of BioShock 2. "Your time for sleeping is over."

Of course, the BioShock series hasn't been sleeping for very long. Developed over a tight timeframe, BioShock 2--announced amidst news of Ken Levine's departure from the series and an upcoming film adaptation--was a project born to a healthy amount of skepticism. Would this be the first of many cash-in sequels to a unique, self-contained game, or a worthy follow-up?

After learning more about the project, I certainly wouldn't count it out until all the chips are down. 2K has assembled a team of young, but very sharp developers to work on this game. While Levine may have moved on, his absence does present the possibility of a fresh take on the world of Rapture--something that isn't necessarily ruled out with the reprisal of the setting.

For those avoiding any details on the sequel, beware that this preview will cover several basic conceits, though major plot details remain closely guarded... Read more

Bethesda has revealed that its third bit of Fallout 3 downloadable content for Xbox 360 and PC, "Broken Steel," will arrive on May 5 at the usual price of 800 MS Points ($10).

That marks a slight delay from the previously stated April release.

The content was demonstrated at a press event yesterday, and Nick Breckon was on hand to provide his thoughts. Beware, his preview contains end-game spoilers for Fallout 3, but not the DLC, as "Broken Steel" picks up after Fallout 3's original ending.

In a nutshell, Broken Steel will remove the game's ending entirely, with Bethesda's Pete Hines saying simply to fans that called for an open-ended resolution, "We got the idea." Players will still have to make the final choice, but following that climax the game will continue, presenting... Read More

Like many gamers, I am not easily offended by videogames.

Whenever a morally objectionable gaming issue is raised in the media, or on a forum, the crusty Old-Man Gamer in my head pipes up. He's hardcore, for his age.

"Listen here, son. I was blowing up cops in strip clubs when I was ten years old!" he says. "I've been killing Nazis since I was old enough to crawl! Hell, I invaded Germany wearing the skin of a Teletubby!"

For as often as the media thinks I've been morally assaulted by video games, so far not one of them has coaxed so much as an indignant sniffle out of Old-Man Gamer. This may have a lot to do with routine exposure to certain Counter-Strike sprays, but that's what it takes to become hardcore.

So it was very strange to sit there on a Thursday night, one hand clasped around a Norwegian bottle of spring water, the other clenched tight in a fist around an hours'devours napkin, as Konami's Six Days in Fallujah shocked... Read more

Even though the original Silent Hill has always been a favorite of mine, I never once expected a reimagining of the game would emerge as the most promising title on tap at Konami.

Since the release of Team Silent's textured PlayStation 2 sequel, the Silent Hill series has slowly lost steam over the years. The most recent entry, Silent Hill Homecoming, was turned over to American developer Double Helix a few years back. The result was a competent but ultimately soulless retread of previous themes, and it appeared as if the once-fresh horror series was lost in its own fog.

So it was with some trepidation that I sat down to watch a presentation of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories during Konami's recent 2009 preview event. After all, what could be more of a retread than a self-described "reimagining"?

But Shattered Memories is not the game I feared. As Konami... Read more

A week ago, I had no idea I was only running Destruction 1.0, or that I was in need of an upgrade. But so goes the industry: just when you think your explosions are big enough, the Joneses come along with their fancy 2.0 mushroom clouds.

It's not a stretch to say the original Battlefield: Bad Company received attention mainly for its Frostbite engine, which allowed battlefielders to blast through brick walls and level buildings piece by piece. DICE's sequel predictably improves on the technology, while increasing the scale of said explosions. The Battlefield developer seems to be following the Gears 2 school of sequel design with this one--watching a ten minute stretch of gameplay last week, the "bigger, better" mentality was clearly on display.

Bad Company 2 continues the series' fictional war between the United States and Russia, a conflict established in the first title. This time the Russians... Read more