In the following video, Project Director Casey Hudson and his team walk us through some elements of the sequel’s plot, as well as some new gameplay features. Amongst other features, new to Mass Effect 2 is a fully-realized space exploration system, complete with real-time fuel consumption and detailed planetary scans. As huge fan of Star Control II, I cannot tell you how excited I am to have such a similar exploration system appear in my favourite role-playing game franchise.

In addition to the exploration, BioWare previews the expanded dialogue interruption system, as well as the new cover system during combat. Furthermore, it is revealed that Mass Effect 2 will employ multiple endings, and that some endings may have shocking ramifications in future instalments of the franchise.

Stop reading and watch it already!

Click here to watch the video

Opting to release the trailer on their own terms this time around, Sony has sent us the updated trailer for The Last Guardian in all its glory. Enjoy!

Click here to watch the video

Such was the case with White Knight Chronicles and the trailer for the game that debuted at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo. We watched it, we were impressed with it, we encoded it and even uploaded it, and then we completely forgot about it. Sorry, White Knight Chronicles fans!

Better late than never, and without further ado, here is the White Knight Chronicles trailer from E3. And if you want someone to blame, we say blame our robot.

Click here to watch the video

WiiSports Resort utilizes the new Wii MotionPlus accessory for the Wii Remote to offer more precision over the original game. Taking place on the tropical paraside of Wuhu Island, WiiSports Resort provides players with a variety of new activities: Archery, Frisbee, Basketball, Cycling, Bowling (..wait), Canoeing, Power Cruising, Table Tennis, Air Sports, Swordplay, Golf (..but), and Wakeboarding.

The WiiMotion Plus accessory will reportedly add a new level of realism to these activites, helping players come much closer to the physical reality of engaging in the actual sports. Every real-world action, whether it’s the perfect drive or accidentally tossing your Wii Remote at your television, will be replicated faithfully on screen!

WiiSports Resort launches for $49.99 on July 26^th, 2009, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii. In the meantime, enjoy this trailer from E3:

Click here to watch the video

Panda food, perhaps?

Featuring some obvious gameplay enhancements, like the inclusion of vehicle damage and NASCAR racing, the trailer is a feast for the eyes. It’s hard to tell how much of it is real-time footage, but with the pedigree of the Gran Turismo franchise, it would be easy to believe that it is all in real-time.

Click here to watch the video

That Akrid is big.

Brink is an immersive shooter said to blur the lines between offline and online gameplay. Players will be able to develop their character across every available game mode, including single player, co-op mode, and multiplayer. Brink also promises to introduce revolutionary new controls to the first-person genre, such as the SMART button. When pressed, the SMART button will dynamically evaluate what you’re trying to do and makes it happen. While it may make navigating the battlefield easier, I hope that the combat remains skill-oriented.

Brink tells the story of a man-made floating city called Ark, made up of hundreds of floating islands. Originally built as an experiment, Ark is a self-sufficient and entirely “green” habitat. But with the rise of Earth’s oceans, Ark has become the last refuge for humanity. Overflowing with tens of thousands of refugees, the original Ark founders, and their descendants, the floating city is overcome with social unrest. On the brink of civil war, the future of the Ark will determine the future of the human race.

Key features of the game include:

• Blurring the Lines Between Offline and Online – Advance your character’s development across every gameplay mode: single player, co-op, and multiplayer. Gain experience points that you can spend on customizing and upgrading your skills and abilities, designing an entirely unique look and feel for your character.
• Groundbreaking Kinesthetics – Brink uses the familiar shooter controls that you’re used to, without frustrating, artificial constraints and takes advantage of a new feature: the SMART button. When you press the SMART button, the game dynamically evaluates where you’re trying to get to, and makes it happen. No need to perfectly time a jump or vault, the game knows what you want to do.
• Context-Sensitive Goals and Rewards – Objectives, communications, mission generation, and inventory selection are all dynamically generated based on your role, your status, your location, your squad-mates, and the status of the battle in all gameplay modes. You’ll always know exactly where to go, what to do when you get there, and what your reward will be for success.
• Virtual Texturing – Brink’s proprietary technology, Virtual Texturing, breaks new ground on current-gen consoles and PCs with an even greater focus on highly detailed characters, realistic environments, lighting, effects, and atmospherics. This competitive lead on the squad-combat genre helps thrust players into the gritty reality of the Ark’s epic secluded arcology.

Brink in scheduled for release in Spring 2010 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. Enjoy this teaser trailer from E3:

Click here to watch the video

The story in Halo: The Fall of Reach takes place before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game released in the Halo series, and depicts the origins of the Spartan II super soldiers. The story is narrated by Halo protagonist Master Chief.

No details are known about the gameplay in Halo: Reach, but a multiplayer component for the game has been confirmed. Halo: ODST, shipping to retail on September 22^nd, will include an invitation code for the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta.

Click here to watch the video

If fun puzzle solving and pleasing graphics mixed with some action and platforming sounds like your kind of game, check out our preview or enjoy these new screens from Frozenbyte:

Source: Joystiq

Primarily developed by Madrid-based Mercury Steam, Konami has announced that their Kojima Productions studio, led by none other than Hideo Kojima, will also be collaborating on development. Shown last summer as Lords of Shadow, which many gamers thought was fully-realized version of Snake’s nightmare in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the project was only revealed to be a Castlevania title today.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is said to take place at the “end of days.” The alliance between the people of Earth and the Heavens have been threatened by dark and malevolent forces, the Lords of Shadow, and darkness has begun to consume the world. Souls of the dead wander without peace, and evil creatures roam free and spread chaos and death upon the living.

“Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will take the Castlevania series into brave, uncharted territories, and is a breath-taking adventure that boasts stunning aesthetics, deep and challenging game play, and a truly inspirational voice cast to deliver the game’s dramatic depth”, commented Dave Cox, Producer on the title and Head of Product Planning for Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH. “We are also delighted to be working with Kojima Productions who have supported the development of the game and our intended goals with their keen vision and expertise,” he added. “This is a world’s first! A dream team up between a western development studio and one of Japan’s most revered and innovative creators.”

No word on whether or not Koji Igarashi, creator of the Castlevania franchise, will be involved.

Squad leaders can also call air strikes, mortar barrages and parachute insertions, all through the first-person perspective. Winning battles permanently increases the ranking of one of three permanent armies, which you choose to join at the outset. The higher your ranking, the more likely you’ll be on the attack for a particular battle.

As for actual gameplay, MAG looked really similar to the Battlefield series, except with more people. We’ll see how the formula of “more people = more fun” plays out.

MAG is coming exclusively to the PS3 in the Fall.

The controller consists of a wand with a glowing orb at the end and a camera that tracks the movement of that orb. Movements in all three dimensions can be tracked, and every movement is translated on screen with pinpoint precision.

In the demo that we were shown, a representative from Sony demonstrated how the wand could be digitally replaced by any manner of item on screen. To illustrate this, the camera displayed the demonstrator himself on screen holding a digital tennis racket in his hand. When he swung his arms around, the image on screen replicated his movements and the tennis racket accurately emulated the movements of the glowing wand. A tennis ball was conjured before him, and the demonstrator swung at it a few times with his racket, eventually sending it off into the distance. Using the angle and speed of his swing, the PlayStation motion controller software was able to create a realistic trajectory for the flight of the ball.

Further demonstrations involved the use of a sword to attack a skeletal training dummy. Like the ball, the dummy reacted realistically to the blows it was dealt, using the speed and angle of the demonstrators swing to determine the appropriate physics. Then the demonstrator grabbed a second wand and loaded a bow and arrow demonstration. One wand represented the bow in the digital world while the other represented the arrow. Nocking the arrow as a real archer would, the demonstrator pulled back with the arrow wand to increase the tension while the bow wand was used to aim. Pressing a button found on the arrow wand allowed him to release the arrow, sending it into the chest of an approaching skeleton warrior.

Eager to show off the many applications for game design, the Sony representative loaded a first-person shooter program. The wand in his hand transformed into a golden pistol, and once again using the button on the wand he was able to fire bullets around the environment. Then it got really interesting. The demonstrator took a few steps backwards and his first-person perspective moved accordingly. Because the camera is able to track the movements of the wand in all three dimensions, it knew that the demonstrator had stepped away from it. This level of implementation will make it possible for developers to create first-person environments in which players will realistically move. If only my living room was large enough to encompass their imagination.

Motion controls are changing the industry. Originally designed to bridge the gap between the casual and the hardcore – a bridge that many hardcore gamers believe should never have been built – motion controls may threaten to eliminate the hardcore entirely. But what if someone could design a motion control system that both demographics would accept? The gap would disappear and no bridge would need be built. It seems like an impossible conclusion, but with the entire industry shifting focus toward the motion control phenomenon, it may be coming sooner than you think.

Check out these screenshots of protagonist Chuck Greene painting the town red.

Each stage acts as a flow simulation in which players will attempt to control various types of liquid and solid matter. Is there a waterfall of molten lava blocking access to the next survivor? Reroute the lava flow to another area by destroying the earth beneath it. But be careful, that lava may travel to another area and make spelunker soup out of some other unsuspecting survivors.

Due in Fall of 2009 for the PlayStation Network, PixelJunk Shooter is the fourth game in Q-Games’ successful PixelJunk series. Combining simple and addictive gameplay with equally simple and addictive graphics, PixelJunk Shooter looks to live up to the standard set by its predecessors.

Click here to watch the video

We’ll post more details as we get them.

With the dynamically evolving storytelling mechanics of Heavy Rain, the next victim could be you.

Click here to watch the video

To further reveal the gameplay enhancements found Rachet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Insomniac Games have sent us this walkthrough video. Guided by Creative Director Brian Allgeier, the video gives us a glimpse of the new characters, new weapons, and new locales found in the game.

Click here to watch the video

The colours are rich and vibrant, the environment and character details are staggering, and the animations and facial expressions are unbelievably life-like. The best part? It’s all real-time.

Actually, the best part is the return of my beloved Elena Fisher, but that may just be me. Thanks, Naughty Dog!

Click here to watch the video

From what was shown, the last chapter of the prestigious God of War series didn’t look to have anything really new to offer besides moves, weapons, and enemies. The same Active Time Events, brutality, huge bosses, mythical enemies, and wonderful, saucy action. One neat thing that happened was that the start menu melded seamlessly into gameplay.

Oh, and those poor, poor bird creatures. We haven’t received the trailer from E3 yet, but we’ll be sure to post it when we do.

Final Fantasy XIV will be released simultaneously worldwide in four languages: Japanese, English, French and German.

Update: At their own press conference the next day, Square Enix went on record stating: “in terms of all other hardware, including Microsoft consoles, we are considering all other options at this time.”

Players can customize their own characters, build their own karts, and design their own race tracks. The characters themselves – called Mods – resemble super-stylized versions of vinyl figures and can be fully customized from head to toe. The karts are just as customizable, allowing players to apply custom decals and paint jobs to match the attitude of their Mod. But the most impressive aspect of ModNation Racers is the track design functionality.

Players are given simple and accessible tools to create any track that they can dream up. Like LittleBigPlanet before it, all of the creation tools used to create the in-game tracks will ship with ModNation Racers. The best part? The tools are so simple and intuitive that a professional-looking and fun track can be designed in mere minutes. Players can add hairpin turns, rickety old bridges, create hills, and add other elements to the race track on a whim.

And it wouldn’t be a Play, Create, Share game if you couldn’t share all of your creations with the community. Players will be able to share their Mod character designs, their customized karts, and their twisting tracks with the rest of the world via the PlayStation Network.

Best of all? ModNation Racers looks like a blast to play. With plenty of items and weapons to pick up while blazing around the track, coupled with the limitless potential for new content and online multiplayer, ModNation Racers quickly raced to front of my most anticipated games list.

ModNation Racers launches in 2010, and I’ll be waiting at pole position.