Coming in at a bit more than three minutes, the song sung from Toad's perspective features striking piano and drumming overlaid by The Mountain Goat's John Darnielle singing. The mix kinda sinks its hooks in, and the finale with King's and Darnielle's duet adds just the right amount of sweet to make you want to go back and have a second listen.

Give a listen on the jump.

Premiere: The Mountain Goats and Kaki King: "Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is in Another Castle" [MP3/Stream] [Thanks Jim]

Fortunately, EA has installed said telescope and aimed it directly at the wee Spore advertisement, giving passersby a chance to enjoy some smartly conceived marketing. If you happen to be in the Bay Area, specifically Union Square, you have a brief opportunity to check it out. Everyone else can live vicariously through pics after the jump.

Creek boy dies from gunshot[Watertown Daily Times, via GamePolitics]

Hit up the jump for a full gallery of drum pics, including one that shows off the extra jacks for add-ons like cymbals and comparison shots next to the old Rock Band drums. And stay tuned next week for a closer look at drumming in Rock Band 2.

GALLERY




















END

The Maxis folks were very helpful, talking to me about the underpinnings of the game, the philosophy, the importance. They even shot me a copy early so I'd have time to play it before writing up the feature.

Of course all of those interviews and time spent with the game had to be boiled down to the relatively thin 25-inch mainbar and three sidebars for the newspaper. It might be worth checking out if you're interested in a mini-primer on the game and a bit of a peek behind the curtain.

The most interesting, and to me most surprising, thing I learned about the game are the plans Electronic Arts has for its future.

When you dig into Spore (and I've been doing a lot of digging lately) you come to realize that operating beneath the surface of an interesting game is a lot of amazing technology, stuff that hasn't really been applied to gaming before. Things like aesthetic algorithms and the like.

And Electronic Arts knows that it has something much more than an interesting IP with Spore. They also have a new sort of gaming engine. Not something like Unreal, but something that allows you to create a different type of game. So it's no surprise that they're not going to let that go to waste.

(Frank Gibeau, president of Electronic Arts' Games Label,) says he can imagine EA using the underlying technology and concepts to create a robust action title, a deeper real-time strategy experience and a role- playing game, all built around Spore's central player-creation concepts.

"What's so beautiful about Spore is that it's extremely malleable," he said. "You could add RPG or action, you could take it to different platforms, like (Web-page) flash games, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii.

"It really travels well to other platforms."

But even beyond that, EA is actually considering licensing out their new tech to other developers. In essence, allow game makers to use Spore Tech to create games of their own.

The idea of Spore as a virtual gaming platform has tons of potential I think.

Spore is the New Video Game of Life [Rocky Mountain News]

The event was held at the as-yet unopened Academy of Sciences in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Attendees got the double treat of being able to see the brand new planetarium and the top part of the spiffy aquarium, where all the sharks and stingrays hang out.

There were also tasty mini-burgers and surprisingly few stations where we could play Spore during our downtime.

The main bulk of the event was the presentation given by Will Wright as a lead-in for scientist Frank Drake.

Drake is the astrophysicist who came up with an equation to figure out how many different kinds of intelligent life in the galaxy there could be. This was Wright’s go-to for Spore inspiration when the basic premise of “sim-everything” wasn’t enough to get the design team going.

The only reason I found myself caring about any of this (aside from the fact where I love Spore, and it was a swanky party), was that Drake struck me as a guy who doesn’t play games – and yet he was so passionate about Spore. Spore, he said, is a game that matters. It matters because as a tool, it helps people conceptualize what intelligent life in the galaxy could look like. And it matters as a game because it inspires a whole new generation of kids to dream about science fiction-y stuff, about what could be out there in the galaxy.

Above: Check out Drake's sweet Spore tie.

I never really thought about it, but since the end of the space race in the 60s people just stopped caring about science the way they did when hover cars still seemed like a good idea. If Drake’s right in thinking that this game is significant as more than just a way to keep myself entertained for 25 hours or so, then maybe – just maybe – review scores won’t matter for Spore. (In which case, Germany can suck it.)

Spore ships September 7. Sorry if some of these party pics are too dark.

Since there's not an article on the game, let's check out Famitsu release calendar.

This section shows what games are coming out this December (12月 in Japanese). Do you see 白騎士物語? We don't. What about a game coming out on December 11th? Nothing!

Let's take a gander at the section that show game releases marked "TBA" or 発売日未定.

Ah! Look, there White Knight Story (白騎士物語). No release date and no price for this game. We're not saying it isn't coming out on December 11th — we're saying that this issue of Famitsu, which was rumored to dated the game, does not say when it's coming out. So, until there's something official announced, consider this game "TBA" and this Famitsu rumor smashed.

The Company yesterday received a written notice of the rejection of the Proposal from the board of directors of TECMO. Followed by the notice, the Company immediately requested TECMO for explanation of some issues to receive no response to it, even reasons of the rejection.

Under such circumstances, the Company is unable to make appropriate modifications to major terms of the Proposal including the TOB price, and determines that it is extremely difficult to continue the discussions with TECMO based on the Proposal. The Company, therefore, has decided to withdraw from the Proposal.

Square Enix turned down by Tecmo for Koei and then ignored? Ouch.

When Square Enix originally announced its offer to Tecmo on August 28th, the famed RPG maker proposed offering to purchase a controlling interest in Tecmo by purchasing shares in that company at 30 percent premium. "I can only believe that our proposal will be accepted," said Square Enix president Yoich Wada (pictured) at press conference that same day. "I hope." If the plan was rejected by Tecmo (and it was), Square Enix originally stated: "We will withdraw our offer."

Apparently, Square Enix is having a problem taking no for an answer as the company just released a statement:

The Company immediately requested TECMO for explanation of some issues as follows:

1. Please confirm that the decision on the start of discussions with KOEI toward integration of management is the reason for rejection of the Proposal.

2. If that is the case, please clarify concretely that major terms of integration of management with KOEI (form of the integration, stock prices assumption, integration ratio and so forth) are favorable for TECMO's shareholders than the Proposal.

3. If not, please clarify that TECMO has an alternative plan, which is favorable for TECMO's shareholders than the Proposal.

The Company will make definitive decision on its plan immediately after receiving a response from TECMO.

Bwah? Square Enix's offer doesn't seem so "friendly" any more.

How interested? Interested enough to start tracking sales and, over the course of the next few months, to start taking pre-orders on a number of video games.

Our Slurpee-sources tell us these 7-Eleven gaming facts:

One out of ever two 7-Eleven customers own a gaming system.

Nearly 3,200 stores had considerable Madden sales the first week of the game's release.

More than 25 percent of Madden sales at 7-Elevens occurred between midnight and 1 a.m.

What's that mean to you John Q Customer? Why that starting this month 7-Eleven is going to start selling the seven "highest potential games" introduced for the holiday wind up.

Those games include Lich, Guitar Hero World Tour, Fallout 3, 007: Quantum of Solace and Gears of War 2.

The stores will soon have point of purchase signs set up for video game pre-sales.

Games will all be available at midnight on the day the game is released.

According to several different store employees, the game will be streeting on November 4 for $40. 7-Eleven, we're told, will be selling the game starting at midnight. Can you imagine? Lining up at 7-Eleven. How odd, though at least there would be Slurpees readily available.

With the PC release and the localized Japanese version still to come, it's looking more and more likely that GTA IV can hit that 15 million mark in 2008, as Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst predicted.

A cheaper Xbox 360 and forthcoming episodic content sure won't hurt GTA IV's chances this holiday season.

The Rock Band Disc Export update will show up as a tab under the extra options in the Rock Band menus. For about $5 gamers will be able to export 55 of the games 58 disc tracks.

The three songs not making the cut?

"Paranoid" as made famous by Black Sabbath, “Run to the Hills” as made famous by Iron Maiden, and "Enter Sandman" by Metallica. And in Europe the track Tokio Hotel’s “Through the Monsoon” won't be exportable.

We know why Metallica isn't making the leap. Maybe the same holds true for Sabbath and Iron Maiden?

Eurogamer
...apart from some cool explosive effects and solid controls, Mercenaries 2 is utterly mediocre in almost every sense that matters. From the initial sorties onwards it's bogged down by the worst kind of brain-dead cannon fodder enemies, lead-you-by-the-hand level design, arbitrary boundaries, and some technical howlers. It lacks challenge, excitement, personality and any real verve whatsoever.

Videogamer.com
One of the fundamental problems is the AI of enemies. We've seen plenty of action games with dumb enemies, but those in Mercs 2 rank very near the bottom of the list. They show almost no signs of intelligence other than raising alarms or occasionally moving to a vacated gun emplacement. We regularly saw enemies stood motionless between buildings, firing RPGs at us from touching distance and driving into each other

IGN
Mercenaries 2 seems balanced for two players more so than one. Especially since, in co-op, your teammate can revive you if you die. They just have to get near you, hit the proper button, and you're back on your feet. In single-player, death kills you, so to speak. It helps to communicate, as one man's explosion can often be his friend's untimely demise. With two people calling in air strikes, these can get pretty crazy on screen. There's something eerily poetic about laying a hail of bullets on an enemy as your face is awash in the glow of a nuclear detonation. Co-op is a powder keg of goodness.

Gameplayer
There’s also the occasional odd visual glitch or letdown. Scooting about in a chopper, at one point, we were engulfed in the thickest fog of war seen this side of an RTS. Other glitches saw the AI spot our position even though we were obscured from view, and our support chopper got stuck on the environment on more than one occasion. That said, these aren’t deal breakers. For a virtual world that spans 8 square kilometres we guess this sort of stuff is, at times, unavoidable.

Variety
But what makes the game a true standout is how streamlined its design is — the controls are extremely approachable and players are trained slowly in their use. Rather than inserting endless fill-in dialogue, "Mercenaries 2" makes in-depth data on characters, locations and story elements available for optional reading through an intuitive menu interface. The overall effect is that players can concentrate on everything there is to do in the game world without getting stuck in an overburdened story or overcomplicated controls.

Things aren't always simple in the world of mercenary game critics.

This new batch, sent our way from Xbox 360 USA, gives a bit of a better glimpse into the game which has players defending Tokyo from a "horrific, genetically mutating disease."

As the game industry environment changes with high-powered hardware, portable game machines and rapid growth as well as online mobile games, the accelerating consumer needs are varied and sophisticated. The industry has intensified. Multi-platform and the importance of overseas markets is pushing the industry towards global competition.

...Under these circumstances, these two companies have excellent financial positions, strengths and the ability to take advantage of each other in order to improve profitability and solidified the foundation of a worldwide leader.

The statement also acknowledges that both companies are in talks with the aim to integrate management in the future in hopes of creating a "stable and secure environment" as well as respect each other's individuality.

Tecmo has just released a statement regarding this offering. That translated, after the jump.

For Tecmo, this proposal was received in a short span of time, but within the company, we collected opinions from management and game creators as well as a wide range of employees.

In our companies source of revenue, as a result of a guarantee with our capable workers, a guarantee of steady game development and the preservation of our brand, there is a high possibility of improvement. However, we did not arrive to agree to this proposal, and thus, our Managing Board declines the offer.

Stockholders, clients and customers, please continue your favor towards our company.

We just got off the phone with Microsoft and we had a great talk about updating Castle Crashers, YES!! Looks like we’re on our way to getting this title update out and the bigger issues like saving and online connectivity resolved, in addition to other bugs that have been reported.

Unfortunately that's as precise as they get, saying they "don’t have a specific time frame yet" for when we can expect the release, but it can't be too far off. Can it?

Title Update is Coming! [The Behemoth]

* Xbox 360 Arcade - $199
* Xbox 360 - $299
* Xbox 360 Elite - $399

Yes, that makes the Xbox 360 officially the least expensive current generation console following an $80 price cut on the Arcade model. Here's to hoping that helps Microsoft's recent hardware sales woes.

It was still free-roaming and featured detailed 3D avatars. It still had plenty of running and gunning. But the vibe, the feel of the game didn't have the same GTA-ness to it that, to many, marked the first Saints Row a Grand Theft Auto clone.

I actually mentioned this to the Saints Row folks on hand and they agreed with me. Even the marketing for the game has been geared toward differentiating the free-roaming shooter from GTA.

But it's hard to put your finger on exactly how the games are different when playing Saints Row 2. It sort of feels that GTA and Saints Row were both heading down the same road and at some point GTA veered off in one direction and Saints Row headed off in another.

The chunk of demo I played through had me playing around with a skinny bald chick escaping from a prison. (I'll avoid the obvious Britney jokes.) The controls for shooting felt fairly tight and melee combat was a joy. I could also, I discovered, run up on a hapless victim, using them as a shield before dispensing them.

The game was packed full of humor both of the developers making and my own. For instance, after one particularly fierce battle with a guard I back-hand bitched slapped him to the ground, killing him.

I'm not quite sure yet how well Saints Row 2 is going to hold up once I have the full title in my hand, but I do know with absolute certainty that more games need fatal bitch slaps.

"She just knew, from playing 'Grand Theft Auto.' She saw on there that when a car rolls over, it can blow up. She knew that could happen to us"

I know, I had to make sure the story was true as well, going so far as to call the story's writer, Craig Wieczorkiewicz, to verify the details. "It's amazing the sort of information that comes out when you ask the right questions," he offered, after I commented on the rarity of such stories.

So yes, the Grand Theft Auto series can easily become the scapegoat for any number of crimes, but it can also inspire heroism in the heart of a preteen girl with an unrealistic grasp on automobile physics. Of course this will be discounted as a freak occurrence by those that choose to believe violent games cause violent children, but for us the story can serve as an example of video games teaching us helpful, if relatively inaccurate things.

Preteen girl helps family escape crashed vehicle [MyWebTimes]

The latest word we've heard is that the idea has been officially brought forward and is in discussion by the board of the Entertainment Software Association. That means the possibility of an open E3 is one step closer to reality, if the rumor is true.

The question now is, is the move, if it happens, too little, too late? Can anything save E3 at this point or was this year's event and the across-the-board negative reactions to it the final nail in the show's coffin?

Hit the jump for the major platform breakdown!

• PC: 98 titles
• DS: 78 titles
• Cell phone: 76 titles
• Wii: 27 titles
• Xbox 360: 14 titles
• PSP: 13 titles
• PS3: 12 titles
• PS2: 8 titles

「東京ゲームショウ2008」出展予定タイトル情報の第1弾が到着 [Dengeki] [Pic]

But that's a problem easily solved, and the PA folks are all over it.

The bigger problem, as I see it, is in the expo's name and its association with Penny Arcade.

Penny Arcade Expo has the potential, the very likely potential, to become the one preeminent video game show in the country. It has the exuberant backing of developers and publishers, it has more than enough willing participants to go around and it has the blessing of the many folks who cover the gaming industry for a living.

But what it doesn't have is a neutral jumping off point. PAX has the words Penny Arcade in the title and while for me, and tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people like me, that's a bonus, there are still lots of people out there who hate the strip, the people associated with it and anything whatsoever that has to do with Penny Arcade, Gabe, Tycho and, yes, even Fruit Fucker.

What this means is that they have a fractured potential audience. While most PAX attendees are unified by their love of gaming, they're more unified by their love of Penny Arcade. Sadly I think that means the show's potential audience will remain fractured as long as Penny Arcade is the central theme, preventing PAX from becoming the Games Convention or Tokyo Game Show of the United States.

There are some solutions. I think that it would be easy enough, especially with a second, east coast, PAX looming a few years away, to just change the name of the show and let it grow into its own entity. Another option, presented to me by one of many industry types I talked to about this during the show, is to just officially rename the show PAX. In other words remove the meaning behind the acronym and have it take on a meaning of its own. In a few decades, maybe just a few years, people would wonder what PAX stood for and why the show is called that.

While most of the people I spoke to at the show eventually came around to my way of thinking, acknowledging, no matter how grudgingly, that yes there are PA haters out there and nothing will ever get them to the show, I do wonder how true that really is.

How many among you didn't attend PAX strictly because it's the PENNY ARCADE expo as opposed to a video game expo? How many of you would have gone if it was called something else?

What I think everyone can agree on is that the U.S. needs a single video game show for the public, and not the many that now litter the gaming landscape. We need a TGS, a Leipzig. The real question is will E3 get it's act together and fill that shrinking void or will a show like PAX become the show to rule them all.

Graphically, the game delivers, but I was a little surprised, slightly disappointed even, at how simplistic the controls were.The four face buttons let you throw high punches, low punches, strong punches and perform a grab and throw. To block a punch you pull a trigger and to duck a punch you hold in the corresponding punch button.

While you can move your fighter around with the joystick, this doesn't really seem to come into play much. Mostly you want to be close enough to duke it out and I found myself relying on the duck buttons to avoid blows, rather than moving my fighter away from the fight.

What stripping down the controls so significantly does it create a button-mashing brawling that can be fun to play at times, but that may not deliver a game that with a lot of staying power.

I had fun bashing in the face of Tristan's pugilist, and occasionally having mine bashed in, but I can't imagine it would be a game I'd want to play for any length of time. And while the simple controls seem like a perfect fit for young gamers, the over-the-top cartoon violence and T-rating seems like it will filter out most of the people who will most want to keep playing the game.

It doesn't look too shabby, does it? The boss is pretty impressive...definitely not something I'd want to be caught alone with in a circular room, armed only with an axe. Everything looks a bit too orange though. I suppose it's a step up from brown, but still. Hit the link to go to GameCinemaHD's Silent Hill: Homecoming page, where another exclusive clip should be appearing shortly!

Silent Hill: Homecoming [GameCinemaHD]

Among the freebies that we are giving away with our schwag bag are tons of t-shirts (including pretty sweet Fruit Fucker and The Maw shirts) , a Fallout 3 survival guide, a World of Warcraft pet card from this year's WWI in Paris (the Blizzard guys were kind enough to hand one over to us), a ping-pong gun and plenty of little do-dads.

OK, so how should we do this. Any suggestions?

The look of the game and sound of the game are spot on (the game uses some of the original sound files), a perfect fit for the DS and some fun portable play, but I wasn't totally enchanted with the games controls.

Designed by Backbone for a release this fall, the game is a throw-back to the original retro action classic and it really nails most everything it's going for. And the problem with the controls aren't completely Backbone's fault. It's mostly because the game plays on a DS using the D-Pad and that just doesn't translate very well for me. The controls felt a bit mushy and having to turn to take on an opponent, especially with the elf, could be frustrating at times. I longed, while playing the game, to have a joystick to fine-tune my shots with.

Fortunately, the game more than makes up for this one weakness with surprisingly robust multiplayer features including both cooperative and competitive multiplay. The game supports up to four player coop and in-game voice chat. It even uses it's own servers which means, I was told, no silly friend's codes to worry over and input. The campaign includes 40 maps in three realms.

The competitive play (which they weren't showing at PAX) includes ranked multiplayer games like death match, team death match and treasure hoard mode played across 16 different maps. This seems like it's going to be a must by for fans of the classic Gauntlet.

Hit the jump for the press release.

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT JAPAN TO RELEASE
NEW WIRELESS HEADSET FOR PLAYSTATION®3
Bluetooth® Supported Wireless Headset to Enjoy Voice Chat on PS3®

Tokyo, September 2, 2008 – Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ), a division of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. responsible for business operations in Japan, today announced that it would release Bluetooth® installed Wireless Headset for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) on October 30th, 2008, in Japan at a recommended retail price of 5,000 yen (including tax). With this new Wireless Headset, users will be able to enjoy the most immersive on-line communication on new software titles supporting on-line chat feature, such as SOCOM: CONFRONTATION*1 available on October 30th, Resistance™ 2 available on November 13th, and MotorStorm™: Pacific Rift available this autumn, all from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios.

Offering simple operation and accessible voice chat on PS3, this sleek and compact Wireless Headset is an ear hook type headset, designed to fit either ear. Installed with Bluetooth, it pairs automatically with PS3 by simply using the bundled USB cable. The inner ear phone speaker of the new Headset along with the noise cancelling feature when in High Quality mode delivers stable, superior sound.

Additionally, the bundled cradle can be used to charge the battery which will allow maximum of eight hours of voice chat when fully charged. While the Headset is connected to PS3, it will support on-screen indicator showing the headset connection status, battery charge level, and other things like speaker volume level and microphone mute status at a push of a button.

SCEJ will continue to further expand the PS3 platform to create a new world of computer entertainment with enhanced line-up of PS3 platform and accessories, along with up coming exciting new titles.

*1 SOCOM: CONFRONTATION will be available in three versions: Blu-Ray Disc version (3,800 yen including tax), Blu-Ray Disc version bundled with Wireless Headset (limited edition for 8,000yen including tax), and PLAYSTATION®Store Downloadable version (3,500 yen including tax). This product is on-line action game and users will need broadband network connection in order to enjoy the game.

* Users will need to install the latest system software update to use the Wireless Headset.

We've been hearing rumblings that the new controls will bring run-and-gun style play to Resident Evil — quite a big change for the traditional walk-stop-shoot RE approach.

[Pic]

Hit the jump for hazy, disjointed hands-on impressions for Infinite Undisovery, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Damnation, Rise of the Argonauts, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and Mirror’s Edge.

I literally got no more than 10 minutes with each title in the Exhibition Hall and with the exception of The Conduit, I didn’t get to chat up the demo-keepers for the usual details a journalist needs to report on her games. But since most of these titles are coming out soon, already have demos available or were previewed at E3 and Leipzig only a week or so ago, 10 minutes is really all you need to get to know a game for yourself, if you’ve been following it in the news.

Above: Tabletop... meh.

I bee lined for Infinite Undiscovery first thing, since it’ll be the first thing I buy in that list of games. This action JRPG is the closest replacement Square Enix has offered me to replace Kingdom Hearts, and while I could deal with the lack of Disney, I’m not sure I could deal with the art design. Like Lost Odyssey, everything was proportional and colors were muted for a more realistic-looking experience – to me, it seemed ugly, but we were only playing in two areas that weren’t very well-lit (caves and stuff). The combat served me well enough – button mashing is what I expect when someone says “action” RPG. I sort of liked that you could be strategic when it came to setting up your primary party and your secondary party, and even a third party to have in reserve – but then I realized all of these characters were onscreen with me as I ran off to locate hidden energy crystals. Talk about crowded! At least Goofy and Donald weren’t so far up Sora’s ass, you couldn’t see the boss.

Despite not being able to see the demo boss, I took him out in short order (the save featured over-leveled characters, huzzah!) and gave up the controller to the girl in line behind me.

Above: You catch more bees with honey... and more gamers with food.

Then it was on to Animal Crossing: City Folk, but that was only because the line for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was longer. Animal Crossing: City Folk looked like it was directly imported from the GameCube Animal Crossing, with a larger town area to run around in and different NPCs. I was the most fugly-looking little boy with a beanie and I spent most of my time in the demo, running around and trying to find my house so I could empty my pockets. Failing that, I just settled for dropping cherries, fossils and decorative end tables to make enough room in my inventory to put my watering can away.

Then the line for Symphonia abruptly got shorter, so I made my move. However, the guy ahead of me got his hands on the controls and played Dawn of the New World for a solid 23 minutes straight. Other people gathered around me, fidgeting, wondering when this guy would give it up – but nobody wanted to be the asshole who asked for a turn. So I watched him play and marveled that he couldn’t seem to get the motion controls to work. How hard could it be to point the cursor at the flower and press A to trigger the flower bridge? He kept getting attacked from behind as he struggled, and most of the battles he spent mashing on the artes button to send his character into aerial attacks. Dude didn’t even bother to change his elements the way Nintendo Power says you’re supposed to…

Finally, I got my turn and wandered around the world map, trying to trigger the flower bridges. But the motion controls sucked and I found myself piddling around just as much as the guy ahead of me had. The only difference was I gave up after only 10 minutes instead of making the poor bastards behind me wait another half hour.

In disgust, I wandered over towards the back of the Exhibition Hall, maybe to get another look at the Pink Godzilla store, but I got turned around and wound up getting my hands on Damnation – since there wasn’t a line. I’d read a little bit about the game and knew that it was supposed to be this big, open-world adventure that featured acrobatic-type stunts and stuff. But I hadn’t read anything about cowboys, so I was surprised to see myself playing as one – gun slinging some far-off enemy I couldn’t figure out how to target (yeah, yeah, I don’t do shooters, so kill me). A small cluster of 12-year-olds formed behind me and one of them told me to use my “spirit vision” to target the sniper I was having trouble hitting. When I couldn’t figure out how to do it, I handed over the controller and watched to see what he would do – but I’d left him in a bad place and the sniper took him out three seconds later.

Above: Mountain of Pink Godzillas!

I wandered away before the demo level restarted and found myself staring at Rise of the Argonauts. And my only question is: how have I not heard of this game before? I’m totally down with mythology and I even suffered through God of War and God of War II just because I get a fangirl’s thrill of watching Zeus interact with Hera (it’s like the original soap opera). The game is still in early days yet, so the graphics were a bit chunky and the frame-rate was crap – but it played pretty well as far as movement. The environments were rich with detail and the cartoon-ish style of the characters totally worked for me; so I was really loath to give up the controller after only 10 minutes. But I didn’t want to be a dick and there were a lot more games to play.

Later, I felt bad because I realized I hadn’t actually experienced any combat in Rise of the Argonauts – I just ran around a hallway and made slaves open doors for me. But when I went back for a second bite at the apple, the line had suddenly swelled to ten people (I guess that E3 Game of the Year Nominee sticker above the demo table got some attention). However, it turned out man friend had played through the demo from the start and he filled me in on what I missed later.

Apparently, this game is ultra-violent between light attacks and execution moves. “Like Ninja Gaiden II?” I asked. “No,” he said. “Like Conan – except all the animations are canned.” He totally dug the big ass mace, the big ass shield, the big ass spear and the smaller-ass sword. You can switch weapons in the middle of the combo, so if you start out hacking someone with a sword, you can finish by pulling out the mace and caving in a guy’s skull. “It’s a pretty big deal,” said man friend. The combos didn’t feel really fluid to him, but we agreed that that had more to do with the game being in early development stages as opposed to the game potentially sucking.

Oddly enough, man friend was sold on the deep-looking advancement system. I had Googled the game for info about the god-based affiliations, but he was talking about aspects related to astronomy. Whatever that means. I don’t care, because I’m totally going to get this game just based on my 10 minutes with it – never mind man friend’s experience.

Next up was Lord of the Rings: Conquest – and that’s only because Mirror’s Edge had a line out to next week. My man friend volunteered to start waiting while I wandered off, and the closest console available was where I wound up. There wasn’t much of a wait to play Conquest – I assume because everyone’s already seen it. Even I’d already seen it at EA’s last Showcase event; and not much has changed between then and now – it’s still a Star Wars: Battlefront-style of action game where you can get by with button mashing. It’s pretty, though.

Man friend stood on tiptoe and waved me over to him. I dashed, thinking he’d gotten his chance at Mirror’s Edge, but it turned out he just wanted to vent. Some Parkour expert had cut ahead of everyone in line and was being given the royal treatment by the demo handler. The guy right behind Parkour dude got a consolation shirt, but the rest of the the jilted line-waiters had to suffer.

“It’s because of his shoes,” I consoled my man friend, staring at the funky-toed footwear the Parkour guy was sporting. It certainly wasn’t because this guy was good with games – he died like half a dozen times. To be fair, the demo level started you off with a pretty serious jump and if you botched it, down you went. But after that, he was getting shot because he wasn’t running up stairs fast enough to get away and he kept over-balancing on the part where you’ve got to walk across a cable stretched between buildings.

“Why is everything red?” Parkour guy demanded. Clearly, he hadn’t read up on the game… Then the PS3 overheated and I thought he’d give up and go away. But the demo handler – anxious to please – restarted the demo for him and ran through the level to get back to the point where he’d left off.

I checked my watch. It’d been more than half an hour with just this one guy!

Finally, he finished the level and the line moved up. At long last, we got our turn with the game and I let man friend take it since he’d been a dear about waiting in line. Man friend says the controls were a lot simpler than he thought they’d be. He was really impressed by the sense of moment and speed – the faster you went, the better it felt. And the combat was very minimal, which fit in with the rest of the game. He disarmed at least three guys and stole their guns – but “it didn’t feel right” so he threw each firearm away and kept running. He also didn’t really use the “bullet time” feature because it made the free-running feel less fluid (even if it did make disarm moves look cooler). The little touches impressed him the most – the multiple paths through environments, the way Faith touched the wall before rounding corners. I thought it was kind of dumb that you had to punch open doors, but he didn’t seem to mind.

My favorite part? The dot they added to the middle of the screen to reduce motion sickness. Seriously – a life-saver.

Man friend finished the level in 10 minutes and I pried him away from the console, stressing my etiquette about not taking too much time. I felt like I had been pretty efficient with the whole day, but when I check my watch again, I realized three hours had gone by and I hadn’t even seen half the games on the floor.

And that’s why I’m glad Crecente had his magic yellow badge and that I had three friends with me at the convention. Because there is no way one PAX-goer could ever do it this year all without some way to cut in line or some way to be in four places at once.

Stupid Parkour guy…*mutter, mutter*

The Conduit, in case you’ve never heard of it, is a futuristic sci-fi shooter aimed at core gamers. That might seem weird, then, that it’s only on the Wii, but developer High Voltage Software is convinced that the Wii is where it’s at for shooters on the count of the controls being so intuitive. I wasn’t going to argue with them on that point, but I heard myself muttering “Not Red Steel – please not another Red Steel…”

Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger (who was running the PAX demo) heard me too. “Oh no,” he said. “Definitely not that.” He showed me the menu wherein players can set the Wiimote sensitivity for everything from turning speed to reticule motion when firing. This is great for klutzes like me that tend to flail when being shot at, but it didn’t do too much for the realism of shooting, really. The Wiimote has limitations, after all, most of which Red Steel demonstrated. At length. *sigh*

I didn’t have too much success actually killing aliens Saturday, but that had more to do with me getting lost in the demo level than with difficulty. The guy before me had stopped playing at some point in a narrow hallway and I had a hell of a time finding the fallen-in wall that was my exit. Once I finally got out onto a street, a shot cutscene showed me a big spider-looking boss that I was supposed to kill. I shot at it with my glowing orange gun and for a moment, I felt like I was 14 again, playing Turok on my N64 (but here, the environments weren’t drawing in and there was no disco code to make the aliens dance).

The next day, I revealed myself to Eric as a Kotaku correspondent and got to watch him go through the whole demo so I could see what it really looked like from start to finish. Eric started out on a destroyed street littered with broken cars and was almost immediately confronted by aliens running towards him. A few headshots solved that problem, and we moved on to the dark hallway and then through to an alleyway out onto a street where the demo boss waited (and I don't need to tell you he did a much better job killing it dead than I did the day before).

Even though The Conduit was only in pre-alpha, it already looked way better than Red Steel. Certainly not as good as Metroid, but then, as Eric said, “That’d be like saying you’re better than Jesus.”

I asked about Wii MotionPlus because in theory that’d solve the realism problem. Eric told me Nintendo hadn’t handed over the goods quite yet, although they were expecting to get their hands on dev kit materials this week. At least Nintendo had been helpful in providing High Voltage with a way to incorporate a Wii chat for online multiplayer.

Eric went on to say that the idea was to create an in-depth shooter that didn’t dump a bunch of cutscene exposition on you. The actual cutscenes between levels will be short, sweet and to the points and, for people who have to have a story with their shooters, the levels are all peppered with little things you can find and interact with the get more of the story (radio broadcasts, TV shows, etc.). Kind of like Cloverfield, only without the motion-sickness camera.

I definitely got the feeling that the actual shooting was the star of the game. Not the story, the graphics or the multiplayer – although, that could change as The Conduit moves into the beta phase and actually adds multiplayer. And if what Eric said about aiming at core gamers is true, then The Conduit might be just want the doctor ordered for the Wii’s ailing shooter release list.

Screens below and keep your eyes peeled for a trailer later today:

Payton's move back from Japan to the U.S. couldn't come at a better time for a game developer, as the focus on game development seems to be shifting from former dev powerhouse Japan to the U.S. Japan may still be the center of the gaming universe when it comes to cold hard cash, but when it comes to development it no longer seems to be, Payton said.

"The Japanese public seems to be disinterested in next-gen and high definition gaming," he said, pointing to the 360 and its apparent uphill battle in Japan as proof of that. "There is a stigma still attached to western technology there."

"There have been a lot of good mainstream games built for the Japanese Xbox 360," he said. "But they only sold a small number of copies. I think that kind of drained a lot of expectations."

And yet the DS, with it's relatively dated technology, continues to sell well in Japan.

"It's not about the tech in Japan, it's about the games, it's about nostalgia."

While Japanese gamers still seem interested in the sorts of games coming out of Japan, the same isn't as true for the rest of the world's gamers, Payton said.

"It's apparent, everyone knows it in Japan," he said. "The developers here feel the pressure. They're starting to develop more with the West in mind and the tech is in the west now. I'm surprised at how many titles have been produced on the Unreal 3 Engine."

Team Ninja was one of the few development teams in Japan who seemed to get that, Payton said, so it's ironic that they disbanded after their latest Ninja Gaiden. He sees Square-Enix's move to snatch up Tecmo and its assets as heartening, perhaps a sign that Square-Enix is hoping to return to their golden age.

As for Payton, his future is still up in the air. He wants to stay in the industry and has been receiving lots of interest, but he still hasn't decided exactly where he wants to land. Though it sounds like he'd prefer to work on an original IP rather than an established one.

"When I'm traveling I'm always thinking about ideas," he said. "They all come from an original IP or original universe. Their are existing franchises that haven't been beaten to death and are still open that I wouldn't mind working on too."

"I'll go wherever we can make a big massive game."

Hit the jump for a tasty selection of the cosplayers I captured on digital film. Gotta get them all.

In the game you play as Frank, a hapless alien armed with only a Plasma Leash. Fortunately he has the frighteningly large and easily frightened blob-like pet Maw. Frank can use his leash to guide Maw around to eat thing and clear paths, but despite being nearly all teeth, Maw is an easily frightened creature. So Frank has to spend a lot of time bulking up Maw and dealing with obstacles that the creature won't face.

The game has a lot going for it. First there's the amazing personality built into the game. The Maw and its lead creature are sure to win over the hearts of gamers as they play through it. The game itself is a nice combination of unique mechanic and fun puzzles. To take on many challenged gamers have to move Frank around which, in turn thanks to the leash, gets Maw to move around. But the fact that you don't have total control over Maw and can merely suggest where it should go, adds a whole other level of challenge to the game.

While seems big enough to take on everything in the game if it wanted to, the fact that everything even slightly close to his size, makes the game much more challenging. Often Frank will have to find ways around scary creatures to move Maw along through the game. Frank can use his leash on other creatures, he can also use it to occasionally grab some items for puzzle solving.

Maw grows as you feed it, it also takes on the powers of the things it eats. So when he sups on a fire creature he temporarily gains the ability to shoot out flames.

The Maw seems to have that pleasing mix of fun graphics, engaging character art and interesting game mechanic that virtually insures success. The game is due to hit the Xbox Live Arcade next year.

The Maw

Hit the jump for the live blog.

As I mentioned earlier, the Airstream was completely gutted and refitted with a wonderful blending of 50s and Fallout 3 era knick knacks. The center piece to the whole thing wasn't the working mini-fridge packed with Nuka Cola, but the flat-screen television installed in the back wall, complete with faux woodgrain framing and a mammoth wall mounted speaker.

Now you should be getting enthused about the Nuclear Airstream too. Turns out that Bethesda plans to donate the amazing piece of schwag to Child's Play following the launch of the game. Can you imagine winning this bad boy and parking it in your front yard for late night gaming sessions. The whole thing, I'm told, even runs on electricity.

Microsoft Japan to cut price of Xbox 360 console by 30 pct - report [Forbes]