1. Mass Effect 2

First and foremost is BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 the sequel to E3 2006’s Best RPG of the Year. Being touted as the grim second act in the Mass Effect Trilogy, ME2 promises to bring an intriguing story, more action and higher detail graphics with less pop-in and shorter elevator rides than it’s predecessor. I’ve become so excited for this game that I started playing through the original one more time just so I will be able to see how the plotline in ME2 varies depending on the choices that I made in the first. Funny thing is that the texture pop in never bothered me the first time around, but now it’s getting a little obnoxious.

2. Dragon Age: Origins

Next up on my list is Dragon Age: Origins. Yet another BioWare title—yes, I have become a fanboy—DA:O is a new RPG series set in the medieval fantasy realm of Ferelden. You are playing as a member of the Gray Warden, a society who’s purpose is to stop The Blight from encroaching upon the world. The Blight appears to consist of dragons, antlered-ogres, and an assortment of walking corpses. You can see from these clips that DA:O continues to look fricking superb. BioWare is going to a dark place in order to bring the intensity to DA:O, which becomes evident when you visit their newly updated blood-soaked website. In an interview with Gamespot, Dan Tudge gives a little more detail regarding where the inspiration for Dragon Age: Origins came from.

Fans who loved the rich story, interesting characters, and tactical combat in the deep fantasy setting of Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights will love what we’re doing in Dragon Age: Origins. We’re capturing the same great spirit of story, exploration, tactical combat, and character progression that we delivered in those previous titles and bringing it to a dark, heroic fantasy setting. We’ve taken a lot of what we learned from creating Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights to make Dragon Age: Origins even better, so fans can expect a lot of what they enjoyed about those games, but with next-gen improvements.

3. Crackdown 2

When I first heard the signature beeps at the beginning of this trailer my arm hairs stood up on end. I thought to myself,“No way, it’s too good to be true.” But there it was right before my eyes, Crackdown 2. The highly anticipated—by my gaming buddies at least—follow up to the original sleeper hit, Crackdown 2 brings you back to Pacific City where you will be responsible for bringing order and justice to the city by any means necessary (read: by jumping really high and blowing stuff up). According to Xbox.com you will be able to play with up to 16 friends in online versus mode and up to 4 in co-op mode in a wide open sandbox playground that appears to be experiencing some sort of invasion by a monstrous virus. The only unknown for this title is whether developer Ruffian Games can surpass the fun-factor that Realtime Worlds brought to the first installment of Crackdown.

4. Tekken 6

I might have mentioned a time or two that I am stoked to see Tekken being ported to the 360. It is my all time favorite fighting series. The controls have always felt intuitive and the response time is top-notch which means the gameplay is ultra-slick. With any luck this will translate over to the latest console ports of this arcade game, and Ivy can have a blast pummeling me with whatever cheap move she masters. The bit of the Tekken 6 E3 preview that I enjoyed the most was watching the robo-licious scenario mode preview. Doesn’t that look like a ton of fun to play through?

5. Shadow Complex

Besides Crackdown 2, Shadow Complex was the only other title that I hadn’t heard of already which interested me during Microsoft’s E3 keynote. The story behind Shadow Complex is pretty standard fair. Set in Orson Scott Card’s Empire universe, you’re on a mission to stop some “evil” paramilitary group from taking over. The style of gameplay is what interests me. By melding polished 3D graphics and high end physics courtesy of Epic’s Unreal engine with classic side scroller action that’s reminiscent of all of those NES titles that frustrates the hell out of me as a kid, Chair Entertainment is creating a unique retro-modern title that promises to be the next generation of Xbox Live gaming.

I could probably go on and on with more highlights from E3, and trust me I very nearly did, but this post has already been a week+ in the making. Instead I’m going to ask you, what are your Top 5 picks from E3 this year? Was there something that you were hoping to see but didn’t? Was there something that completely blew your mind?

This one is for my gamer chums as well as all my pals out there who make music that is both noisy and strange. An interview from Wired.com with Amon Tobin and the Sony Music Team from the recently released title Infamous (PS3). The video focuses on their effort to bring found objects and homemade instruments into the studio to create an unconventional soundscape that accurately reflect the sense of destruction and decay in the game.

Infamous Official Trailer

Granted, it’s fairly common practice in the game and film industries to use found objects to make various sound effects, but actually bringing these techniques to the soundtrack is worth noting. It almost makes me wish I had a PS3 so I could check this out… almost. The technique that Sony here in Infamous reminds me of avant-rock band, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum’s knack for bringing homemade instruments—and the unique sounds that they create—to the apocalyptical music that they create.

A great interview with Sleepytime, they start talking about their custom instruments at around 7 minutes.

Not to be outdone by the Mass Effect Team, BioWare has also released a new trailer for their upcoming game Dragon Age: Origins, dubbed “Blur”. Much like their previous trailer, this one is dark and violent, thankfully they did save “The New *Hit” for just the last couple seconds. As with the ME2 trailer, Blur makes me that much more excited to play the game, due to hit the streets October 20th 2009.

The more I learn about Dragon Age: Origins, I can see that BioWare is really trying to make this series darker and grittier than any other RPG they’ve done in the past. The Dragon Age isn’t made of knights in shining armor who fight for truth, justice and the strictest moral fibre. The prequel novel The Stolen Throne was full of flawed heroes, who showed more dimension in their character—for better and for worse—than you typically get with most fantasy literature. In an effort to further grunge up Dragon Age, the folks at BioWare have update their original leather belt buckle looking logo to something more streamlined with a swath of blood smeared across it.

On a side note, for fans who want to take Dragon Age old school, BioWare has teamed up with Chris Pramas, and RPG publisher Green Ronin to develop a pen and paper port of the Dragon Age: Origins the video game. Which you can learn more about here.

This is the latest trailer for Mass Effect 2 that the guys from BioWare have been clamoring about for the last two weeks. As you can see from the trailer intergalactic space cowboy, Commander Shepard is alive and well. You’ll also notice that beautiful environments, frantic combat and an intriguing plotline are also making a return. Based on this trailer and the few details that leaked out earlier this week, my interest in this games has gone from very excited to super-duper excited.

Here’s some gameplay footage for Fallout 3’s upcoming DLC, Broken Steel. If you haven’t heard, this DLC looks to be awesome. Unlike the previous two DLC packs—Operation Anchorage, and The Pitt—Broken Steel will significantly expand the original story line, opening up the ending of the game to allow you to keep on trucking through the Capital Wasteland even after you’ve completed the main quest. Additionally, Broken Steel will raise the level cap from 20 to 30. Personally, I wish it would be higher, but I can understand their reasoning behind it. An invincible character sounds fun, but in practice it would make the game quite a bore.

In addition to expanding the gameplay, Broken Steel will introduce some new baddies into the Wasteland like the bum-ugly Super Mutant Overlord, and new weapons like the Tesla Cannon. There will also be some more perks to go along with the increased level cap. So far, the only one that Bethesda’s mentioned is the Puppies! perk that will automatically clone you a new Dogmeat anytime he gets killed in the line of duty—which is actually quite often.

If you’re a fan of Fallout 3, be sure to check out Broken Steel when it hits the streets on May 5.
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This game looks rad as hell! Look for it to hit the streets on May 1st.
Uncaged.com

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ooooooooooo, my toes are all tingly.