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Dante's Inferno (Xbox 360, PS3, PSP)
• Publisher: EA
• Developer: Visceral Games
• Release Date: 2010
• Screenshots
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
We went into a dark demo room and watched a few various circles of hell. (I want to say Anger and Limbo but it was so dark that my notes look a bit...odd) We watched a lot of intense combat scenes as demons died by the dozens -- puking female demons, huge horned beasties, fire demons, gargantuan boss fire demons, and a huge Minotaur that also doubled as a pissed off mount. Graphically gorgeous but perhaps a tad derivative, it looks like a Hellish version of God of War for those who don't own a PS3.
• What We Think:
Mitch: I walked into the Dante’s Inferno demo without much of an interest in the game. I walked out flabbergasted. The game looked exactly like God of War. The hero collected colored orbs to regain his health and magic, played slow-motion sequences through Quick Time Events, pulled himself atop larger enemies with his chained weapon, and carried out brutal executions through button mashing prompts. The camera even pulls back to give you a sense of scale as you chop up the enemies. It’s stylish like Kratos’ Greek God-killing games, but the lame exaggeration of biblical interpretations (the cross and Death’s scythe as your weapons? Really?) don’t appeal to me like a pissed off, sword-wielding maniac chopping up a burning Athens does.
Bill: God of War goes to every Circle of Hell. Pretty game, though.
Brian: I’m tired of the cliché complaint lobbed at Dante’s Inferno, “It’s a God of War ripoff.” Not all of us own a PS3, or can decide which of the six models to buy, so I’m more than happy to play a rip-off if it means that I can get in on the action – a genre in which Dante’s Inferno has the potential to upset the current hierarchy. This will depend on Dante’s abilities that have yet to be revealed, the difficulty of his opponents, and how well the game controls, which I can’t speak of. What I can attest to are the atmosphere and pacing of Dante’s Inferno. Words like “epic” and “mesmerizing” strain to encapsulate the unsavory beauty of hell, the twisted behemoths within, and the fluid cinematography of the active cutscenes, which I hope aren’t too stifling in supply.

Dark Void (360, PS3, PC)
• Publisher: Capcom
• Developer: Airtight Games
• Release Date: September 22, 2009
• Screenshots
• What We Saw:
We had a chance to take the jetpack for a spin during Dark Void's opening level. We got a chance to try out various flying controls, including advanced maneuvers pulled off by clicking the right thumbstick and moving the two thumbsticks in differing directions. We flew around, shot up some AA guns and satellite dishes and then landed to shoot up some robots that were none too happy to have us snooping around. When on the ground, the first person cover mechanics that are all the rage now were in full effect, complete with blind firing and grenade tossing.
• What We Think:
Brandon: The flying was fun, but the game looked rough, the shooting was generic and at one point I knew the general area of where I should go to complete my objective, but that was it. I mean if the game really wants me to blow up a shield generator, a little handholding wouldn't hurt. There's still three months before the game releases allowing for plenty of polish, which is a good thing, because it certainly needs it.
Bill: Pass.
Brian: Yes, The Rocketeer’s influence is obvious, right down to the hints of ‘50s sci-fi. But can anyone really consider that a bad thing? Like the filmic predecessor, reigning in Dark Void’s jetpack requires some learning time, and possibly a few broken necks. For future reference, boosting indoors is exciting, but I wouldn’t recommend it. After getting the hang of flying, I had a moment when I thought, “This is it?” but that was before learning to hijack other aircraft. Taking over an enemy craft plays much like a mini-game as the opponent tries to shake you off, and once you win, the craft is all yours to fly. More than a glorified flight sim, Dark Void is also shaping up to be a competent shooter, with cover-mechanics that extend to the vertigo-inducing y-axis. The one decision that I think will turn out to be a horrible mistake is the confirmed absence of multiplayer.

Darkest of Days (Xbox 360, PC)
• Publisher: Phantom EFX
• Developer: 8monkey Labs
• Release Date: Fall 2009
• Screenshots
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
The CEO and Director of publisher Phantom EFX, Aaron Schurman, took us through a guided demo of Darkest of Days, the first console game from 8monkey Labs. Schurman showed off numerous segments of the time-travelling first-person shooter that spanned multiple eras. From Pompeii to the Civil War through World War II, Darkest of Days is aiming to mix up futuristic weapons in improper eras while telling a potentially awesome story.
• What We Think:
Mitch: While Darkest of Days isn’t sporting the best-looking visuals of the Xbox 360’s vast first-person shooter lineup, the ideas behind it sound pretty wicked. As you travel through time to see some of the world’s most devastating battles, you’ll use weapons from both the era you’re currently fighting in as well as futuristic gear to save specific individuals from dying. A cool system that highlights people who aren’t supposed to die could force you to rethink a strategy, but that will be dependent on how dense these individuals are within the dozens of on-screen enemies. It also sounds like you’ll need to be careful about abusing your fancy-pants weaponry. Schurman mentioned one chapter of the game that you’ll see from two sides – because of your too-successful actions on one side, you’ll need to balance history by fighting on the other. Darkest of Days is brimming with great ideas. Time travel is a risky business, though, so here’s hoping that things mesh well when the game releases.

Darksiders (360, PS3)
• Publisher: THQ
• Developer: Vigil
• Release Date: 2010
• Screenshots
• What We Saw:
We were able to watch a developer led playthrough as well as get some hand-on time with the game. You play as War, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse who has been blamed for bringing about said apocalypse before its proper time. In an interesting twist, you could care less about saving the world and really only care about clearing your name. War has a full compliment of God of War-esque melee attacks as well as a ranged pistol attack, magical spells and your horse, Ruin, who can be summoned at any point for some hot, horseback combat. The enemy and character design is impressively refreshing, having sprung from the mind of renowned comic book artist Joe Madureira
• What We Think:
Brandon: The comparisons to God of War will be inevitable, however my time playing the game was lots of fun, and I think that it strikes the right balance of using a control scheme and move palette that worked well in God of War with a level design, character design and story that sets it apart. I wanted to keep playing it when my time was up, which is always a good sign. The game is single player only so length and replayability will no doubt be something to keep an eye towards. On an unrelated note, if someone knows where I can get a pony with flaming hooves, let me know so that I can start building my asbestos barn.

Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)
• Publisher: EA
• Developer: Eurocom
• Release Date: September 29, 2009
• Screenshots
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
Isaac Clarke’s horrific journey aboard the Ishimura was a bit of a chronological contradiction. It was the beginning of a promising franchise, but only the aftermath of much greater tragedy of xenophobic disfigurement. Wedged between the comics and the game, Extraction is a rail-shooter set amid the panic three weeks before Isaac’s arrival. While roaming the halls of the planetcracker class ship, once with a cohort and once by myself, I felt the welcoming pull of a former home, or perhaps the Marker. Old locations, weapons complete with alternate firing modes, equipment updgrades, stasis, and kinesis have all returned. One new weapon that I saw was the rivet gun. It’s extremely weak, but the unlimited ammo is something that no tool from the original offered. This will be useful since the ship is much more heavily populated with both necromorphs and frantic meatbags… err, survivors, this time around.
• What We Think:
Brian: Anyone who was worried about Extraction turning into Dead Space-lite, including myself, can tuck those fears into the forgotten recesses of the subconscious. Even the architecture, which takes an obvious hit on the Wii, maintains the dismal gloom of fading neon and the bonelike geometry of the walls. The pacing will obviously have to take things up a notch from the original, at least if Visceral wants to keep people actively involved, but I don’t think this will be a problem. After a brief pause to get the lay of the land, the camera took off in a valiant effort to find safety in a room that was quickly filling with gaping maws. The barrage was constant, with only small moments to reload and shake the remote to shed a little, momentary light on the situation. This is the one, forced element of tension that I worry about becoming a problem. Otherwise, I can’t wait to play this chapter of the dark tale.
Brandon: Another on rails beastie shooter for the Wii? Yeah, I'll play this one too. Picking up weapons and health packs were the rule of the day, made all the more difficult by the fact that you constantly have to keep recharging your glow stick, and that homicidal monsters keep trying to gnaw your face off. The ability to twist the Wiimote to change your plasma cutter's beam from horizontal fire to vertical fire was nice, as was the two person co-op, complete with objectives that required you to work together, switching off who shoots and who solders the busted elevator control panel.
Bill: I watched Brandon play co-op with some random woman who came across the booth. I don't think I like rail shooters.

Deca Sports 2 (Wii)
• Publisher: Hudson
• Developer: Hudson
• Release Date: Q3 2009
• What We Saw:
In the spirit of Wii Sports and Wii Fit, Deca Sports 2 is a compilation of simplified athletics utilizing the dual-controls of the Wii to pantomime the real motions. Up to four players can participate at once, and each team has Heavy, Medium, and Light characters that bring unique abilities to each event. Although the full game will feature 10 events, including tennis, darts, and dodgeball, I was only able to test my skills in ice hockey, kendo, speed skating, and mogul skiing.
• What We Think:
Brian: Wii Sports continues to be one of the most beloved Wii titles, due in large part to its accessibility. Even with sloth-like reflexes and a vague idea of the controls, it’s easy to jump into Wii Sports and have fun. Considering the four events that I played, Deca Sports 2 is having a little trouble balancing on that line. Ice hockey was enjoyable and intuitive, but as I found out when my opponent set his remote down, the A.I. will do everything but shoot for you. Leaning over the other side, skiing and skating both require a tricky combination of up/down alternations and button-presses that no one at the display could get the hang of, except for one Hudson employee who apparently had been explaining the process all day long.

Demon's Soul (PS3)
• Publisher: Atlus
• Developer: From Software
• Release Date: Q3 2009
• What We Saw:
Demon’s Souls is a sword-n-sorcery, action-RPG with a focus on online play, but not in the way that you might expect. You can play through the storyline with up to three friends or head into a rival’s game for some PvP – nothing extraordinary. Demon’s Souls innovates by giving players the abilities to scrawl messages (no cussin’) on the ground and activate bloodstains, the result of other players’ deaths, to learn from their mistakes. While scaling the winding stairs and lookouts of a massive fortification, I came across a bloodstain before a wooden floor. The ghost, the echo of an unfortunate player, revealed a structural weakness in the floor through his death. As I was told, the World Tendency system will alter the game for replayability, and not with tired rewards for good and evil, but by silently altering the enemies, items, and locations available to experience.
• What We Think:
Brian: A game like Demon’s Souls is a tough one to judge from 15-minutes of play time. The bloodstains and messages do work, and if the game is as “relentlessly difficult” as claimed, they will be necessary. It remains to be seen though, how heavily progression will rely upon skill versus the trial-and-error experiences of others. The combat is a solid notch or two above Oblivion’s, with multiple attack types, quick dodges, and fast equipment changes. No problems there. What I really want to see is the World Tendency system. Other games have alignment systems and such, but they lack the guts to cut the player off from content for a truly unique experience. Fallout 2 is the last game that I can think of to succeed at this, so here’s hoping that Demon’s Souls draws inspiration from there instead of Fable or KOTOR.

Divinity 2 (PC; 360)
• Publisher: DTP
• Developer: Larian Studios
• Release Date: Q3 2009
• What We Saw:
Divinity II is a much anticipated sequel to 2002’s Divine Divinity. It’s been awhile since that game’s release, so a lot has changed with regards to the gameplay mechanics with which longtime fans of this franchise are familiar. This time around the game engine has been done in full 3D and the isometric perspective from the first game has been replaced with a more traditional over-the-shoulder third person perspective that brings you closer to the action, but may not be quite what RPG traditionalists are after.
New gameplay mechanics include a mind-reading feature that lets you glean details from NPCs at the cost of your player character’s experience, the use of “Illusions” that allow you to tweak your character’s look (and gender) throughout the game, and a new skill tree complete with Priest, Mage, Warrior, Ranger and Dragon Slayer skills that you can build up at any time during the course of the game. (There’s no need to pick a class.) Combat is real-time, but you can pause it to make use of your character’s various skills. Your character has a Battle Tower home that can be used to store items and trophies or send “runners” out to find supplies for you. It’s about time our heroes were able to send off some toadies to deal with the menial stuff.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, you eventually gain the ability to shape-shift your player character, at-will, between human and dragon form. And given your character’s desire to become a member of an order of dragon slayers, don’t think for a second that this development won’t have ramifications.
• What We Think:
Todd: As much as I was non-plussed by the more close-in third-person perspective, the graphics engine is quality. More importantly, I was impressed with the developer’s commitment to having significant, not to mention less than clear, ramifications for decisions made in-game. Insult some soldiers at the beginning of the game and they may not be so eager to help you at a critical juncture later in the game. Refuse to help a merchant recover some artifacts from some goblins and that same merchant might just get himself killed trying to get them back himself, which could also cost you an ally later on down the road. This is a game to watch to be sure, but it’s not without potential pitfalls.

DJ Hero (360, PS3, Wii)
• Publisher: Activision
• Developer: FreeStyleGames
• Release Date: October 27, 2009
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
We saw the same thing that everyone else at E3 saw, on-stage demonstrations of the game in action. The game sports the same style, both in venues and characters as the Guitar Hero series, however with a much more over the top flair, no doubt to account for the club scene. The controller allows for scratching, naturally, as well as laying various sound effects over the tracks you're currently switching between. If you have some instruments lying around, you can do a turntable vs guitar battle where one player plays the mix while another plays an instrument pulled from the mix. The Activision rep I talked to didn't think there would be a freestyle mode giving players the ability to make their own mash-ups, but don't take that as gospel.
• What We Think:
Brandon: I think not having the controller playable on the E3 floor was incredibly stupid. This game will live or die by the controller. You can have every rapper and DJ known to man making music for the game, but if the controls suck then it's all for nothing. Plus, I'll be damned if I'm going to buy a game like this without getting some hands on time with the turntable. This was the game I was most excited about before coming to E3 and not being able to play it has me both disappointed and wary. It is pretty though, so yay for that.
Brian: I am sold. I was drawn to Activision’s booth by the resonant thumping of my favorite Benny Benassi track, astounded by the realistic motions of the controller’s cross-fader, and thrust into slack-jawed-freakout mode by the conscious-sundering sight of a guitar and turntable ripping through Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. Complaints? Worries? None that I can think of. DJ Hero is going to rock.

Dragon Age (360, PS3, PC)
• Publisher: EA
• Developer: BioWare
• Release Date: October 20th, 2009
• Screenshots
• Trailer
• What We Saw:
In this hands-off demonstration, we watched a previously released trailer about the role of the Grey Wardens (the heroes who must fight back the corrupting force of The Blight) and a couple of different sequences from the in-game play.
The first showed off some of the game’s in-party character interaction, in which your character has attracted the affections of two very different female compatriots. (Think your atypical bad girl/good girl stereotypes.) The scene, in which the assembled audience elected to sleep with the bad girl and cast aside the good girl (how typically cliché of us), did show off how your actions affect your party members. Treating your companions well not only causes them to be nicer to you in-game, but it can also result in them being “inspired,” a state which conveys increased and sometimes entirely new abilities that can come in very handy. Conversely, dumping all over an ally can make them less effective. (As has been previously reported, they can also leave your party or even attack you if they feel they must.)
In the second sequence we got to see an honest-to-goodness battle against a dragon. Yes, dragons are in Dragon Age. (Was there really every any doubt?) We were not taken through much in the way of combat controls during this sequence, but the on-screen action was furious and the dragon was enormous. D&D diehards who’ve wanted for a video game to show dragons in all their immense glory will be pleased.
After the hands-off demo we also got a brief hands-on look at the console version of the game. The visuals did not seem to be as striking as in the PC demo, but that could be an impact of the different display types used (flat panel LCD versus high-quality projector). The controls and pace in combat were reminiscent of Mass Effect, even if the UI is considerably different.
• What We Think:
Todd: This is still my most anticipated title of 2009. The dragon battle was seriously thrilling to watch. It made the player character look like the small bug that he was. Visually, this is probably as good as classic RPG combat gets. That said, I am growing wary of the game’s notion of sexuality. I’m all for exploring the notion of romantic interests in an RPG, and a love-triangle can be a compelling part of that, but the whole good-girl, bad-girl trope is played-out at this point and some of the dialog in the scene we watched bordered on childish. To be fair, it wasn’t helped by the juvenile giggling of the assembled audience. Nonetheless, the game still looks great and it remains at the top of my must-play list for 2009.
Bill: I spent about 20 minutes playing it and it feels just like a Bioware game – the Mass Effect generation Bioware, anyway. I do like the camera here better than in ME, though. It's pulled back -- party style. It’s very action-y but not twitchy and it's also very bloody. The demo also showcased another Bioware sex scene. These guys have a serious fantasy female fetish. That dragon was damn cool, though. However, I thought it died pretty quick. I forgot to ask how buff the party was. I'm hoping "very."
Mitch: I had very little interest in Dragon Age Origins until I actually played it. Even seeing the dialogue and combat segments didn’t do it for me. I’ve fallen out of love with the ludicrous “hath though nonst faith?”-speak that comes with fantasy stories, and I’m tired of fighting spiders and bandits as an effeminate elf archer. Dragon Age embraces all of these facets of fantasy, but then it showers it in blood and sex. Dragon Age Origins is a grim game with the appropriate level of darkness that should come with most fantasy RPGs, and its heavy emphasis on action over “clickclickclick” had me enjoying the combat more than I expected. Being able to swap between four characters and each of their six abilities definitely gives you leverage to fight how you want, and the brief chunks of story I saw had me wanting to know more about these characters. Even though this isn’t a game for me I’m more than willing to admit that Dragon Age Origins has a lot going for it.

Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter (Wii, DS)
• Publisher: THQ
• Developer: 5th Cell (DS), Planet Moon Games (Wii)
• Release Date: Fall 2009
• What We Saw:
We had a developer led demo of the new Drawn to Life games for both the Wii and the DS. On the DS side, the same impressive drawing and coloring engine is back, this time tweaked to give the player greater control on their drawing and coloring but also the ability to make crazier characters sporting multiple arms and legs if need be. In addition to the new drawing tools, players will be able to switch between three character types: a bipedal character, a spider and a blob-esque roly-poly. The platforming has been tightened up hopefully bringing it up to the same level that the drawing was in the past outing. The Wii version has the same basic structure as the DS version, only with the addition of multiplayer sports games and time trials for levels. Both games sport active drawing sections, places where players can draw objects to roll down and crush enemies, or ramps and trampolines used to traverse levels.
• What We Think:
Brandon: My biggest complaint with the first was the less than stellar platforming, so if that has been tightened up for the sequel then I'll be one happy, coloring camper. The addition of sports games in the Wii version is intriguing, however I wasn't able to see it, so I can't say if a game sporting an impressive drawing engine as well as 24 platforming levels will have any extra energy for decent sports games. If I had to pick just version, I'd go with DS one as I like my platformers portable, however the Wii version looks really fun too, and the ability to hold the Wiimote like an airbrush tool means that all of my drawings won't look like differently colored versions of the same paint smudge. On the other hand, maybe sticking with one of the stamps and templates will be the way to go. Welcome back robot Santa Claus!