E3 Preview: Sims 3 Pets

At E3 this year we got to take a peek at a demo of Sims 3 Pets. We didn’t get a hands on so this preview is really all informational, but should help to see if you want to have pets enter your Sims’ world. Sims 3, as a product, has reached some milestones on it’s own. Over 3 billion in game sales and with more variety in how players play the game. Sims 3 allows players to be builders, achievers, experimenters, and storytellers. There have been amazing stories that players have told with Sims 3 and now they can include pets. The Pets are not just added characters to a game, they are Sims themselves. Players will have over 100 different breeds of dogs and cats to choose from. From there, players have the ability to customize their pet in all the ways they are used to customizing their

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E3 First Look: Star Trek

E3 was full of surprises and every time I think back about it I keep saying to myself, “Oh man! Remember that one thing?” and it is always something new that I just didn’t have time to process at the time.  Paramount was one of those that truly stood out.  Perhaps it was the fact that they didn’t have a booth or that I had to go to their own room to find them. Maybe it was the fact that the two games I saw were games I was not aware that they had brought to the expo and they were going to look so good! Some of you are nervous about this title, mostly because we have seen other Star Trek games that have come and gone. Some good, some bad, some terrible and some that seemed like the developers never watched an episode of Star Trek in their

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E3 First Look – Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The game that surprised me the most this year at E3 was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning from 38 Studios. I’d only heard very little about the game before going to the event and wasn’t expecting to see much from it there. But we got the opportunity to see the demo presentation while at the EA booth and I was impressed by what we saw. Reckoning is an open world single player RPG set in a high fantasy world created by famous author R.A. Salvatore with art design by Todd McFarlane. The big names involved with the project don’t end there though. Lead designer on the game is Ken Rolston, creator of Morrowind and Oblivion. In a year full of sequels it was nice to see an original, new IP for once at E3. The core game has four very customizable player races and three class trees that each have 22

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E3 First Look: Lord of the Rings Online Rise of Isengard

This year at E3, I got an opportunity to meet with Turbine to take a first look at the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Rise of Isengard. Only a year ago at E3, Turbine was unveiling the free-to-play model for LOTRO and since then it has become the third most played MMO in North America. Rise of Isengard is set to release on September 27 of this year and has a ton of new things coming for players at the top end of LOTRO. As with most MMO expansions, the level cap is being raised to 75 with all new epic quests and skills to go along with it. Updates and changes to existing skills are being made that will affect players of all levels as well. For players at top end, there will be a new 24 player raid in which you will face Draigoch. Another feature

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E3 First Look: War of the Worlds

Paramount brought two big surprises to these years E3.  The one that caught me completely off-guard was “War of the Worlds.” The demo was played using an Xbox 360 and is set to be released by this year’s end on Xbox live Arcade and Playstation Network.  I must say that out of all the appointments and demos we went through the week, you can tell the developers that love what they were doing and have a genuine passion for the game.  This was one of them.  First Mike Mika, head of development at Other Ocean, not only was exited to show us the demo, but he was truly knowledgeable about the material.  He could not restrain the inner fanboy very well, as it tried to escape the chains of professionalism in front of the media.  I was right there with him, struggling with my inner fangirl as he explained that

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E3 First Look: Prime World

One of the new games that served as a pleasant surprise for me at E3 this year was Prime World from Nival, a Russian social-strategy game and MMO publisher. As a company their focus is to take the hardcore strategy game genre and work in more social and casual elements to reach a larger market. In Prime World players control a castle and a stable of heroes with which to fight in PVP battles. Two factions, the Dark Emperium a science and technology-focused society and the Keepers an artistic, nature-oriented society, battle against each other to control the main resource in the world that is called Prime. Prime is used to fuel machines as well as magical spells. Your heroes are able to tap into Prime to gain special abilities that help them battle to control the Prime. The game is divided into two interdependent but separate types of play.

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E3 First Look: Star Trek Infinite Space

I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a Trekkie. So I enjoyed getting to sit down with Gameforge and take a look at their new free-to-play, browser-based, tactical action MMO, Star Trek Infinite Space. The story in Infinite Space is set during the Deep Space 9 timeline in the Star Trek universe. It is written by Star Trek screenwriter Lee Sheldon, who hardcore fans will recognize from the TV series. When starting out the game you can choose to be a captain of the Federation or the Klingon Empire. Character creation allows you to customize your avatar from many races including human, Andorian, Bajoran and obviously, Klingon. You also get the opportunity to customize your outfits and equipment. While the majority of the game takes place flying your ship, you do get to use your avatar in social spaces and hubs to meet up with other players. But once you

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E3 First Look: Mass Effect 3

Shepard is back and everything is just as we left it at the end of Mass Effect 2.  The designs of the levels are faithful to the previous games and it gives it a sense that we had never left.  The graphics at the time of this demo are similar to what we’ve seen before – not a lot of improvement.  It makes me wonder if this was this an artistic choice, a fact that is a demo, or that we where viewing it on a huge TV that allowed us to see every defect up close?  That’s yet to be determined.  We saw breaks in the skin mapping that caused back lighting to come through the character as well as jagged edges and pixilation.  I know I’m being picky about the graphics, but Mass Effect is one of those games that we expect to look as polished as possible, so

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Majesco shows off DS and Kinect games at E3

The Majesco Entertainment press room at E3 was like a fun party complete with a wall filled with people jumping, punching and kicking to new Kinect games across from a row of Nintendo DS and 3DS games. The variety of light-hearted, fun games for the family was a refreshing contrast to the “who’s got the biggest explosions” contest that was the E3 show floor. In my time with Majesco, I got to see four upcoming titles that all look to be fun for the family. The first game I got a look at was Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic for the Nintendo 3DS. The latest in the Mama series continues the tradition of fun cooking themed play with over 200 unique mini-games and 60 recipes. It takes advantage of the 3DS capabilities by using the gyroscope to do things like flip food in a pan and uses the 3D display

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E3 First Look – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

One of the most asked about video games at E3 was Skyrim.  I recently posted “what would you guys want to know about E3,” to my Twitter account as well as our Facebook community. It was interesting to see that a lot of the questions where Skyrim related.  Surprised? Not at all, since the game promises to show us a world we haven’t seen before. The Graphics don’t make the game, but in this case, it is required to mention the incredible amount of detail found in the vast lands that Skyrim has to offer. Even the leaves are detailed, on the little plant that you happen to pass by on the road; it’s these small details within the game that are like little unexpected treasures.  I am certain that many of us will stop and smell the flowers many at time during our play through of this game. Skyrim

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