Our goal with previews was to make them easy to read, to the point, and complementary to our review system. They are designed to be welcoming to readers unfamiliar with a particular title, but also have worthwhile information for hardcore fans of a series, genre, or developer. We also wanted to be transparent about what we played — as our previews would be limited to hands-on experiences only — giving potential players a clear look at how a game is shaping up.

Finally, we want previews to be honest. While games in development often deserve the benefit of the doubt, we're not going to overlook a game's flaws.

Previews are broken down into several sub-sections.

What It Is
We'll tell you what the game is, providing as much information about its story, gameplay, and development pedigree in the most efficient way possible. We won't bore you with the details you can glean from a press release or fact sheet; we'll just write up what you need to know to quickly become familiar with the game being previewed.

What We Saw
Sometimes we may play three hours of an in-development game, sometimes we may play just five minutes. We'll let you know exactly what we played, on which platform and under what circumstances. Did we play it at a noisy convention? Did we play it on the comfort of our couch? Was there a producer or PR handler guiding us through the experience as we played? Our goal is to provide the most accurate representation of the conditions under what we played, so you don't have to question it.

How Far Along It Is
As games can be in development for years, we may see and play a title that's not due to be released for another 18 months. In general we'd expect a title that's still a year off to be rougher around the edges than one that's hitting store shelves in six weeks. In some cases, we may have to trust the publisher or developer to let us know when it will be done or how complete the game is percentage-wise.

What Needs Improvement
Our previews will focus on not just the positives, but the negatives of in-development games as well. If something stinks, we'll say it stinks. Our goal is to revisit titles more than once so that we can keep track of what's simply not working for us and let you know if those aspects have improved or not. Yes, we know that a game's frame rate can be polished up at the end, but we're still going to call a bad frame rate out.

What Should Stay The Same
These are our favorites aspects of a game being previewed. If you're looking for the good news, you'll find it here. We'll not only explain what we liked, but why you should care about the title, what separates it from the competition. If a developer mucks with any of these aspects, they're in big trouble. If a game has addressed the faults we noticed during a previous preview, we'll laud those changes here.

Final Thoughts
We summarize the game, essentially judging, based on what we saw, what we liked and what we didn't like, whether we'd recommend the game to someone as it currently is.

"We know it's a letdown to you," High Voltage Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger told crestfallen journalists. "It's definitely a letdown to us."

So, with little else to do with 10 completely playable builds of The Conduit, journalists were turned loose on the single player mode that we've only gotten mere tastes of over the last nine months. Here's what we came away with.

What Is It?
The Conduit is a sci-fi first person shooter, developed exclusively for the Wii. Players take the role of ex-Secret Service Agent generic name Michael Ford to fight their way through an alien-attacked Washington D.C. Originally, the game was going to have Wii MotionPlus, but that got scrapped because it was deemed unnecessary . It sounds like they're going to keep Wii Speak in for multiplayer, though.

What We Saw
Robbed of multiplayer and with about three times as many journalists as there were builds, I settled for a sharing playthrough with GamesRadar's Brett Elston. Originally, we were going to pass the controller back and forth every time one of us died – but since Brett rarely ever died and I died all the time, we settled for taking turns by level. In about half an hour, we'd made it all the way to level five or so before Brett started dying regularly.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is due out in June, but it still looks like it's in bad need of a polish. I'd like to think two months is enough time, but according to Creative Director Matt Corso, the art team is still changing things like lighting and textures. Here's hoping it'll all come together.

What Needs Improvement?
Polish, polish, polish: Everything from the graphics to the difficulty balancing could use a couple more passes by the developer. There's nothing glaringly wrong with the game, but a series of minor flaws combined with high expectations for The Conduit could cost High Voltage. Example: the textures are dull – no biggie. But combine that with a level that's difficulty needs balancing (even Brett died like four times on the train in level four), a checkpoint that feels like it's in the wrong place and some wigging-out of the motion controls when trying to turn with the Wii Remote. That's a recipe for harsh or mixed reviews right there.

Holding Down To Crouch: Most of the button-controls in the game were easy to pick up. You tap B to shoot, hold B to charge up the weapon and press A to jump, etc. But crouching involves holding down on the C button – which doesn't really feel intuitive. Especially considering that to toggle a weapon's scope view, all you have to do is press down on the D-pad and it just stays that way ‘til you press it again. That, to me, seems like a better, more intuitive way to crouch.

All Seeing Eye Puzzles Don't Make Much Sense: To be fair, I didn't spend too much time with the All Seeing Eye – but what few puzzles I did encounter with it weren't very puzzle-y because they didn't really have anything to do with logic. For example, you get to a door with a bright yellow alien lock on it. To unlock it, you have to use the Eye to look for two yellow nodes somewhere in the room, focus the Eye on it and press B to charge up the lock. You'd think the challenge of finding the nodes would make for some kind of puzzle – but nope. They're just randomly tossed around the room, making you question whether the lock wasn't just some developer device to slow you down while the engine renders the graphics in the next room.

Gets Old Fast Early On: I'm really hoping the story makes up for the lack of variety to gameplay. Sure, the All Seeing Eye puzzles shake things up a bit; but for the first four levels when you don't have it, combat gets really old really fast. Especially when you die more than four times at a single checkpoint.

What Should Stay The Same?
Control Scheme: When the controller wasn't wigging out from whatever external pressures exerted on it (10 other controllers going at the same time, bright lights, cell phone signals, etc.), the Wii controls worked pretty well. I think High Voltage has done a good job of a) finding a natural-feeling default that will work for everyone and b) providing all kinds of customization options just in case it doesn't feel natural enough for some.

Options Galore: You can change a lot about The Conduit on the fly in any level from the Start menu screen. Wii Remote sensitivity, level difficulty and basic audio/visual options are there. But there's also a layer of tweaks that can turn an easy level into a hardcore experience: for example, there's an option to set the Wii Remote so that when you point it off screen, Agent Ford keeps turning in place (the default is that he stops moving when the reticule leaves the screen). It's a very small, very subtle difference, but it can make a level feel like a completely different experience.

Varied Weapons: I didn't get to see more than four guns in five levels, but there's something like 15 weapons in the game (all available in multiplayer). A lot of them are your basic shooter weapons: pistol, machine gun, alien shocking ray gun, etc. But hidden weapons caches will yield higher-level weapons with additional motion control features, such as an alien rocket launcher that lets you control the rocket with the Wii Remote after you fire.

There Will Be Cheats: Think back to Goldeneye, Turok and Perfect Dark on Nintendo 64 – they all had weird cheats and unlockables that gave the games tons of replayability and spiced up multiplayer like you wouldn't believe. The Conduit plans to offer cheats along the same line – as well as some pre-order bonus codes for unlockable stuff.

It's On The Wii: I don't care if other developers have abandoned the Wii to the casual games scene – there needs to be a middle ground game like The Conduit that straddles hardcore challenge and Little Johnny's First FPS.

Final Thoughts
The biggest problem I foresee for The Conduit comes from shooter fans that are too used to games on PS3 and 360. It takes a lot of work to unlearn the dual analog stick system of moving and shooting; I could see gamers getting frustrated and mistaking The Conduit's controls as the source of their learning curve woes.

That concern aside, Wii gamers will be pleased; because is nothing else, The Conduit is a step in the right direction. It might fall short of expectations on some fronts (especially if they don't get that difficulty balancing sorted out), but the game goes a long way towards exploring what the Wii can really do for the first person experience – as well as for multiplayer (if they get the servers working, that is).

It was packed with opportunities to sit down and talk with the people behind some of the greatest games, past, present and future. This year, though, it was also quite loaded up with the chance to play soon-to-be-released games. Sure, most were under embargo, but by now almost all of those embargoes have been lifted.

Here's a run down of what games we previewed at the big show:

Dexter iPhone Does Interesting Things
Wolfenstein Preview: Into the Veil
Excitebots Trick Racing Preview: Excite Trucks Gets a Make Over
Section 8 Preview: Death From Above
Punch-Out!! Preview: Slick, Punchy Design
Boom Blox Bash Party Preview: Slingshots Ahoy
Terminator Salvation Preview: Please Don't Come Back
Batman Arkham Asylum Preview: The Challenge Modes
America's Army 3 Preview: Army of One... Plus Two

Tom's Games points out that the company posted three job listings over at JournalismJobs.Com from Feb. 15 through Feb. 27 for copywriter; associate editor, reviews; and associate editor II, PC previews and reviews.

Hit the jump for some of the responsibilities for each job. On a side note, I was a little disturbed to read that their copywriter position might include the unholy wedlock of advertising and editorial, with the person being responsible for writing banner ads, print ads and, perhaps, headlines?

Update: I hear from friends over at GameSpot that the copywriter job is in fact advertising and marketing only and that there will never be any editorial hanky-panky. Good to know.

Associate Editor, Reviews
The associate editor will be responsible for 3-5 regular game product review assignments per week in a timely manner.
The associate editor will be expected to contribute to the reviews editing process both by receiving and giving feedback on his/her own reviews, as well as reviews written by other editors and staffers.
The associate editor will be expected to contribute to additional review-related duties, such as appearing in video reviews or potentially helping to compile game assets.
The associate editor will be expected to contribute to GameSpot's editorial product in other ways, such as attending press events, covering games for previews, and contributing to editorial features.

Associate Editor II, PC previews & reviews
The associate editor will be responsible for 3-5 regular PC game preview and review assignments per week in a timely manner, and potentially some console-related coverage as well.
The associate editor will be called on to interface with game industry contacts and attend game-related industry events and may be required to travel, schedule appointments, manage press assets, and keep track of deadline and designated publish dates.
As part of the process of contributing to reviews, the associate editor will be expected to contribute to the reviews editing process both by receiving and giving feedback on his/her own reviews, as well as reviews written by other editors and staffers.
The associate editor will be expected to contribute to additional review-related duties, such as appearing in video reviews or potentially helping to compile game assets.
The associate editor will be expected to contribute to GameSpot's editorial product in other ways, such as attending press events, covering games for previews, and contributing to editorial features.

Copywriter
Write banner ads, landing pages, print ads, ads, microsites, videos, and, of course, email. Work autonomously with partner designer during concept development and design. Integrate the brand personality into all consumer communication and maintain a consistent look and feel that reinforces and builds the brands as innovators.

Work with Marketing, Product and product design teams to understand our customers, the nuances of the product and the key strategies for each project. Attend user lab studies to witness consumer experience with the product first hand in order to better understand their motivations, stumbling blocks, etc. Develop a strong command of our brands, their positioning and detailed product features.

Like Video Games? Cnet/Gamespot Going Hiring Crazy (must Like Eidos) [Tom's Games]

Bit-Tech recently got their hands on the Wii, and as we get closer to the release date and see more and more footage, the hype grows a little worn and the realistic among us grow ever doubtful.

What I do want to do is provide a little realism. Too many journalists are giving out the impression that the Wii will provide an unbelievable, unique experience unlike anything you will have ever played before. That the Wii remote allows for completely dynamic gameplay that will revolutionise the gaming world. These facts are half-truths, based most probably on people spending a small amount of time with the console at a booth at one of the big conventions. When you get down to the nitty gritty of the Wii you find something a bit different from the 360 and PS3, but not drastically as you may have thought/hoped.

They played a handful of games in a controlled environment and faithfully recorded their impressions, included embarrassing photography. When it comes down to it, will the Wii be, as their comparison goes, an occasional party game as opposed to a serious system? And if so, will it matter? Eliza Gauger

Nintendo hands-on (p)Wiiview [Bit-tech]

WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION? Initially, it's just to survive through the school year. But as you play through, your initial "friend," Gary, sets in motion your true motivation: taking him down. According to him, only one guy can rule the school, and he wants to make sure it ain't you. As you navigate your way through Bully 's five chapters, Gary will be a constant thorn in your side as he attempts to be the true ruler of the school.

Over on 1up it's been officially declared "Bully Week", so it looks like they're rolling out a slew of Bully material. Eliza Gauger

Bully Preview [1UP]

Destructoid got a first look at the upcoming Family Guy game, and seem to approve..

Overall impressions The game actually look fun and keeps a lot of that strange humor and fast cut away scenes (done with WarioWare-like mini-games) that you'd expect in something coming from the Family Guy.

The game comes out Oct. 17 for the PlayStation 2, PSP, and Xbox. If you're a fan, I think this may actually be a solid game for you and you'll enjoy it. Although, if you agree with South Park's stance and can't stand Family Guy, then you won't like this game either.

I've been impressed with the cel-shading in this. Maybe it's just that the cartooning style for Family Guy is already well-defined, but this is the most successful use of cel-shading to get a flat, animated look that I've seen. Eliza Gauger

Dtoid First Look; Family Guy [Destructoid]

IGN has an interesting look at Assassin's Creed, including some informative notes on how you actually control a character as fluid as the assassin Altair:

In order to control Altair, Ubisoft attached four "puppet strings." One to his head (the Y button) his weapon hand (X), off hand (B) and his lower body (A). The right trigger has been jokingly dubbed "emotional control" by Raymond and her team. In short, it is a strength modifier. While walking, hold it down to run. While swashbuckling, hold it down for a lumbering power strike.

Using Y, you will do things like eavesdrop and use intuition. A, then, would be used to jump. An interesting control feature is climbing, done in a way we've never seen before. We didn't get a chance to touch the controller, but you will actually feel for handholds, like rock climbing.

I wonder how feeling for handholds will be handled.My guess would be the best way to do it would be rumble, but that would only be viable on the 360. And speaking of the 360, apparently the crowds will be smarter in the 360 version, thanks to threading. Of course, the concept of playing a game where primary gameplay is trying to push your way through crowds of too-slow assholes doesn't quite appeal to me, no matter how smart they are. That's already what I deal with walking down Grafton Street every day. Florian Eckhardt

Assassin's Creed Preview [IGN]

eToychest was kind enough to point this out to me and since I can let no Rule of Rose material slip through my grasp, I am logging it here with mad glee. This video documents a bit of movement and a boss fight, and talks about various dog functions and the overall mechanic of the game.

The reviewer says the dog is used primarily for locating objects and solving puzzles, generally with a "find" command with which you can match keys to locks and so on. The beast helps in combat by distracting critters so Jennifer can run, but doesn't appear to inflict or absorb damage.

It also looks like combat is not a big part of the game at all, and in fact is to be mostly avoided. I've heard reports of frustration from people who got their hands on a review copy that boss fights are annoying, due to the three-strikes-you're-dead feature. I usually don't mind low character health or even one-shot kills (remember Bushido Blade? That game was sweet.), so I don't think it'll be insurmountable.

Overall, the game is reputedly more along the lines of an old-school adventure game than a survival horror, the difference being the focus on the combat that survival horror usually entails. I will definitely be picking this up, but any review I give will be late because I'll be getting it the same time everyone else does. But my review will have a lot more literary references, of that much you can be sure. Eliza Gauger

more here [eToychest]

Mucking about with monsters!

Shooting lasers!

Honking and bellowing!

These all came out on the 28th over at GameTrailers, and I saw them on Aeropause, who had about as much to say as I do. One thing I will note about these trailers is the sound. The dynamic music is good, if not particularly stand-out, but the sound effects are top-notch. I love the monster croaking. Eliza Gauger

Destructoid points us to the official Rule of Rose site, which officially went live back on the 18th. Seems like everyone missed it, as everyone has missed most of their pre-release milestones. They are sneaky, those spooky schoolgirls.

The site includes a story synopsis, some brief words about the dev company, a trailer, links to a preview played by AceGamez, a wallpaper based on the blackboard-themed inventory menu from the game, and accompanying icons.

My biggest objection at this point is the hairdo of the main character. It's just a big blonde blob. More suited for Patsy Stone than an adorable del. Eliza Gauger

Rule of Rose Official Site [thanks Destructoid]

Okay. Slow down. Breathe. There's a LOT of video here. Two clips from Hong Kong's Ani-Com gaming convention showing actual gameplay from Dead Rising, kindly submitted by Jason who was actually there. He saw it all!

I'm going to give you the highlights of these videos in list format, in order of the things I noticed, because there's too much here to give any one thing much detail.

First video:

• Frank's run animation is weird. He moves like a fat man with sore feet.
• 
  
• Is the puffy, green, pointing zombie hand an unannounced 360 peripheral?
• 
  
• Frank is REALLY ugly.
• 
  
• Taking pictures through camera view gives you a list of photo subjects and their point values (Zombie = 15 points, etc.)
  
• Lots and LOTS of cutscenes, which bodes annoyance. The movement in these scenes seems top-notch, though.
• 
  
• Constant loading screens also seem annoying.
• 
  
• Seriously, Frank is FUGMO.
• 
  
• Snacks. This is going to be a serious snacking game. I will only become more rotund.
• 
  
• Game gets laggy when there are lots of zombies onscreen. This also does not bode well. We only saw the beginning levels in this demo; how bad is it gonna get?
• 
  
• Seem to be able to gather books to raise skills.

• Second video:
  

  • Holy shit, he totally stuffed that zombie's hand in that other zombie's mouth!
  • 
    
  • SKATEBOARD!

  And I'm spent. Hit the links below to see the videos, both of which are long and filled with the soothing sounds of a Chinese game convention floor. The first one is REALLY long. Eliza Gauger

  Video 1 [Gaming-360]
  Video 2 [Gaming-360]
  

This vid comes from Aeropause. I'm leaving on a road trip on the 5th, but will be bringing a 360 with me so that on the 8th, somewhere in eastern Montana in some god-forsaken Walmart host body of a town, I can plug that sucker into a hotel TV and rock out, zombie-style.

But I'm scared, see. The last time I got really excited about a zombie game, it was Stubbs the Zombie. Thinking about it just makes me weep with disappointment all over again. Eliza Gauger

Shadowrun is one of those neglected properties, a wealth of cyberpunk pulp amusement that seems so easy to tweak into vast vistas of raw entertainment: a neon-grimy NeoSeattle with all the caffeine, computers and literally monstrous geeks as present-day Seattle, but with that delicious Blade Runner edge.

So I was eager to learn of the new Shadowrun for the 360, and that excitement prevailed until I saw the actual trailer. A trailer with awkward character design, boring environment and a strangely awesome but totally inappropriate soundtrack.

Now I'm just petulant.

So the fawning Preview over at CVG, complete with some new screenshots, is just not cutting it for me:

After all, where else can you cast a spell to resurrect a fallen ally or summon a giant rock creature to pummel enemies while you capture the flag?

Warsong Gulch. Eliza "Mehhhh" Gauger

Shadowrun Preview [Computer and Video Games]

Splashy water, whippy pigtails and shiny shiny skin in these new Virtua Fighter 5 screens. From Computer and Video Games:

Promising seventeen fighters, including new comers El Blaze and Eileen, you'll have the ability to customize your characters with costumes and a bunch of attachable items to stick on their various body parts.

Virtua Fighter, Katamari style. At the end of a truly successful campaign, you can actually start attaching lesser fighters to your heaving flesh until you become a hideous, sticky gestalt of asskickery. eliza gauger

GamesFirst has posted one of those useful compendiums of all available information on the upcoming Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for the Nintendo DS.

Doesn't this sound like a bit of a pain in the ass, though?

Players will be able to switch between Charlotte and Jonathan at any time. There will be times when both characters will be needed simultaneously to solve various puzzles or tag team enemies with attack combos. When both characters are on the screen at the same time, players will be able to control the movement of the active character with the D-pad, and use the stylus to control the movement of the sub-character by dragging it around the screen.

The wording of that is a bit odd. If it's just for puzzles and the like, it'll likely be fine. But navigating the labyrinthian corridors of Dracula's castle dragging some brain-dead secondary character around behind me on a stylus-drawn leash sounds shuddersome. FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Preview [Gamesfirst]

Appallingly-named game site Computer and Video Games has a preview of the new Destroy All Humans! sequel. DAH!2 (titled "Make War Not Love") is set in the psychedelic 1960's and features multiple settings, including Japan and Britain (with ninjas and secret agents, respectively), and a whole slew of new opponents.

There's mention of Japanese giant monsters Godzilla and Mothra, but I can't tell if they're just using the names in a general sense to refer to big lizards and bugs, or if the actual name-brand monsters are going to appear.

No matter. Here's the important bit:

But, before you wonder how Crypto is going to fight stoners, secret agents and giant rubber monsters, this time he does have an ace card up the sleeve of his spacesuit. Destroy All Humans! Is going multiplayer. The co-op action will allow two players to slog it out together, combining brainwaves to produce fearsome attacks.

Whee! Co-op is absolutely my favorite game feature, and I think it's going to vastly improve the clever (and suspiciously Invader ZIMmy), but slightly monotonous original. Join me, gentle readers, in squealing with glee. And I will join you in cleansing the Earth of those filthy longhairs. Listen to the sounds...of violence. Eliza gauger

DAH!2 Preview [Computer and Video Games]

As opposed to the original game's Charlemagnesque setting and Factions' Asian motif, the new game is supposedly reminiscent of Morocco and Tunisia. Having been to both of those countries, we assume this means there will be a lot of NPCs hiking up their habibs to defecate in the gutter, only to come sprinting at your character to hit them up for spare change every time you zone.

In addition, the two new classes will apparently be "white robed woman wielding a wicked looking double bladed staff, and an unarmed bald monk-like man, possibly a bare-knuckle combat class." Like a monk, right?

No release date, no announcement, no title. Simply effluvium. However, the NCSoft guys claimed that they were going to try to release an expansion every six months or so, so maybe you can expect this as early as late this year.

Guild Wars Keeps Expanding [1UP]

A poor analogy — there is absolutely nothing as maddening as waiting for the gelatinous crawl of ketchup down the inside of that diner Heinz bottle, to gloop out of its crusty mouth and, ten minutes later, onto your burger. Meanwhile, the drooling over screenshots, the gossiping with fellow fans, the dialogue with developers, the profuse fantasizing about what it is like to actually play your hotly anticipated game... all of that is oodles of fun. Hell, look at Duke Nukem Forever — pre-release anticipation of that game and the ridicule that has resulted from its seven year development cycle is more fun than DNF could ever hope to be.

The article is good, though we think the entire point could have been made in a small percentile of the words actually belabored upon it. Nevertheless, we hear him: it's fun to look forward to games, but unfortunately, the games themselves can almost never live up to the game we make out of waiting for them in our mind. It's like the time you lose your virginity, absolutely positive that you are about to be immersed pelvis deep into a small wormhole leading straight to the raptures of heaven, only to find yourself sighing with a cigarette afterwards, thinking to yourself: "Yeah, that was pretty good... I guess."

The Religion of Release [Gamers With Jobs]

We're not afraid to post dissenting opinions, so be warned that Chick doesn't find Au's point to be particularly salient or elegant. On the other hand, he has some interesting thoughts on the nature of writing previews and getting sucked into the still-hypothetical world of the game designer. How does he know? He once proclaimed Trespasser the second coming of Christ. Here's what Chick has to say about that:

I remember being enamoured of a game called Trespasser many years ago.

Until it came out.

But until then, boy, was I enthusiastic listening to Seamus Blackley and Brady Bell tell me all about what it was going to be like. I could probably cull some excerpts from those previews and we could all enjoy a good laugh. I might even be eligible for some sort of special recognition from Wagner James Au's Preview Ho Awards.

He goes on to offer some advice to gaming journalists on how to write good previews. Definitely worth reading as a sometimes opposing but sometimes complimenting perspective on Au's editorial.

Pure Au [Quarter to Three]