Three lucky Pixel readers will win codes for Top Gun (PC).
This contest is open thru December 26, 2010.

To enter, simply leave a comment below letting us know your favorite Top Gun character.

Bask in the glorious cover art as Arne Meyer spills the beans over at the Playstation Blog:

UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception features the return of famed fortune hunter Nathan Drake and follows him through a gripping, action-packed storyline that will take you all over the world. In his search for the fabled “Atlantis of the Sands,” Nathan Drake and longtime friend and mentor Victor Sullivan set off on a daring trek into the heart of the Arabian Desert. But when terrible secrets of this lost city are uncovered, their journey becomes a desperate bid for survival that will force Drake to confront his deepest fears.

Throughout UNCHARTED 3, you’ll be taken to spectacular new locations around the globe,that will showcase all of the work we’ve taken on to take acclaimed physics, particle and visual effects to a new level.

Competitive and co-op multiplayer will return as a key ingredient to the UNCHARTED 3 package, where all of the new features we have planned will combine with our signature single-player cinematic gameplay to create a unique action-adventure multiplayer experience that can only be found in the UNCHARTED universe.

Oh, and there’s one more thing – UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception fully supports high-resolutionStereoscopic 3D.

Also, THIS:

Must have been something Azeroth ate.

The Shattering is here! Blizzard’s massively addictive and popular behemoth World of Warcraft will see the release of its newest world-changing expansion Cataclysm in two short weeks. In preparation, the latest patch released today has torn the world of Azeroth a new hole, literally. Fans looking to play the new character classes (goblens and worgens) and explore new high-level content will have to wait until December 7th, but the world changes today.

Entire continents have shifted. Lands have been torn asunder by rocks and lava and destruction. Cities have burned down, and new encampments have been hastily erected. It’s a whole new game, folks.

Oh, and they molested warlocks something fierce. But that’s how it goes. Everyone gets a taste of the nerf hammer.

Check the jump below for a list of the official changes.

World of Warcraft Client Patch 4.0.3a

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/un…testrealm.html

The Shattering of Azeroth
In the frigid wastes of Northrend, the final battle against the merciless Lich King ended in victory for Azeroth’s defenders. Upon returning home, veterans of the unforgiving conflict against the Scourge were showered with praise for their valiant sacrifices, while the honorable dead were mourned. Yet as hope flared anew in the wake of the Lich King’s fall, Azeroth’s native elemental spirits grew confused and erratic, setting off a series of deadly natural disasters. Horde and Alliance leaders scrambled for clues about the troubling state of the world, but nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

Without warning, the corrupted Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, erupted from the stone heart of Deepholm, the domain of earth within the Elemental Plane. Jagged fissures were torn across the earth, and monstrous waves pummeled coastal regions. From Thousand Needles to the Blasted Lands, the surface of Azeroth was reforged through violent upheavals. Now, the Horde and the Alliance must defend their homes against Deathwing and his minions, burdened by the unsettling fact that the world as they know it has changed… forever.

Azeroth Shattered
Deathwing’s return has had an immeasurable impact throughout the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. Players will notice drastically altered terrain, thousands of new quests from levels 1-55, and updated level ranges for some zones to improve the questing flow.

New Race/Class Combinations
In the wake of a world on the brink of destruction, members of the Horde and Alliance have taken to new cultures and studies, mastering crafts previously foreign to them. Many existing playable races now have new class combinations. Check the official World of Warcraft: Cataclysm website for a breakdown of the new combinations.

General
The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm cinematic trailer and login screen have been added to the game.
Experience required to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by 20%, which increases leveling rate by 25%.

Classes: General
Due to several talent revisions for select classes, druids, paladins, priests, and shaman have had their talent trees reset.
The damage and healing done by players from levels 1-79 has been retuned, with the base points of almost all spells and abilities reduced. This was done to bring combat times at low levels to a more reasonable length. For most abilities that deal weapon damage, the weapon damage percent now rises per level until level 80, and starts at a lower percent.
Healing Rain, Efflorescence, Holy Radiance, Holy Word: Sanctuary now have a diminished effect when healing more than 6 players at once.
Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks, Wound Poison, Widow Venom, Permafrost, Improved Mind Blast, Monstrous Bite, and Legion Strike now reduce healing by 10%, down from 25%.
Effects which are broken from taking too much damage (Fear, Frost Nova, Entangling Roots, etc.) now break automatically from about half as much damage taken as before.

Death Knight
Death Pact now heals for 25% of maximum health, down from 40%.
Death Strike now heals for 25% of damage taken in the last 5 seconds, down from 30%, and will heal for a minimum of 7% of maximum health, down from 10%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.
Icebound Fortitude now provides 20% damage reduction, down from 30% (now 50%, down from 60% when talented), and has a 3-minute cooldown, up from 2 minutes.

Blood
Rune Tap now heals for 10% of maximum health, down from 15%. The tooltip may not yet be updated to reflect this change.

Glyphs
Glyph of Rune Tap now heals for 5% of maximum health, down from 10%.

Bug Fixes
Frost Fever critical strikes now apply the correct amount of bonus damage.

Druid
Bear Form now provides 10% bonus health, down from 20%.
Nourish no longer consumes Omen of Clarity.
Rejuvenation has had its mana cost increased by 30%.
Soothe now has a 1.5-second cast time.
Swipe (Cat Form) can now be used even if the druid does not have a primary target selected.
Thorns: beginner tooltip revised to no longer imply the spell could be kept up at all times. In addition, Thorns damage has been reduced by 60%.

Balance
PvP set bonus redesigned. While not in an Eclipse state, critical attacks against the druid restore 5 Solar or 7 Lunar energy, whichever is more beneficial. This effect can only occur once every 6 seconds.

Feral
Brutal Impact now increases the mana cost of spells on the victim by 5/10% for 10 seconds, down from 15/30%.
Leader of the Pack now heals for 4%, down from 8%.
Survival Instincts now provides 50% damage reduction, down from 60%, and its cooldown has been lowered from 5 minutes to 3 minutes.
Swipe (Bear Form) damage has been reduced by 20%.
Vengeance is no longer cleared on exiting Bear Form, and instead is cleared upon entering Cat Form.

Restoration
Empowered Touch now procs from Healing Touch as well as Nourish.
Heart of the Wild: the Bear Form Stamina bonus from this talent is now 2/4/6%, down from 3/7/10%.
Malfurion’s Gift no longer has Fury of Stormrage as a prerequisite talent.
Natural Shapeshifter now also increases Tree of Life duration by 5/10 seconds.
Revitalize is now a 2-point talent, down from 3. It provides a 20% chance to return 1/2% of the druid’s total mana on periodic heals from Lifebloom or Rejuvenation. This effect cannot occur more than once every 12 seconds.
Swift Rejuvenation is now a 1-point talent, down from 2. The global cooldown reduction this talent provides to Rejuvenation remains 0.5 seconds.
Symbiosis: heal-over-time spells (Rejuvenation, Regrowth, Lifebloom) can no longer benefit from this Mastery merely by refreshing themselves. A different heal-over-time spell must be present.

Glyphs
Glyph of Healing Touch now reduces the cooldown on Nature’s Swiftness by 10 seconds after using Healing Touch, up from 5 seconds.
Glyph of the Treant (new) allows druids to keep the original treant Tree of Life look… if they must. Must they?

Bug Fixes
Blood in the Water now refreshes Rip to the correct value.
Flight Form now properly appears in the trainer window before Expert Riding is learned.

Hunter
All special attacks based on weapon damage (except Scattershot) are now normalized.
Scare Beast is now available at level 36, up from level 14, and has had its training cost updated.
Deterrence is now available at level 78, up from level 36, and has had its training cost updated.
Disengage is now available at level 14, down from level 78, and has had its training cost updated.

Glyphs
The level requirements for glyphs that affect Scare Beast, Deterrence, and Disengage have been altered to correspond with the level changes of these abilities.

Bug Fixes
The Core Hound pet ability Ancient Hysteria now places its own unique debuff on affected players that has the same effect as Sated and Exhaustion.
Certain pets should no longer forget how to Dash.

Mage
Arcane Blast now increases damage of the next Arcane Blast by 10% per stack, down from 20%, reduces cast time by 0.1 seconds per stack, and increases the mana cost by 150%, down from 175%. In addition, the base cast time of Arcane Blast has been lowered to 2.35 seconds.
Arcane Explosion now costs 15% of base mana, down from 18%.
Arcane Missiles damage has been increased by 5%.
PvP set 4-piece bonus changed to increase damage by 5% instead of providing 5% Haste.

Arcane
Arcane Barrage damage has been increased by 5% and its cooldown is now 4 seconds, down from 5 seconds.
Arcane Concentration: Now has a much higher chance (13/27/40%) of entering a Clearcasting state. This effect cannot occur more than once every 15 seconds. The tooltip still states that there is a 3/6/10% chance, as it averages out to approximately the same chance with the internal cooldown applied.
Arcane Specialization again increases arcane damage by 25%.

Fire
Blazing Speed no longer dispels movement slowing effects (it still dispels effects that totally stop movement).
Fire Specialization again increases periodic fire damage effects by 25%.
Molten Shields now also causes Blazing Speed to dispel movement slowing effects in addition to its current functionality.
Pyroblast base mana cost is now 17%, down from 22%.

Frost
Deep Freeze: the cooldown on this ability is no longer reduced by Haste.
Early Frost now reduces Frostbolt cast time by 0.3/0.6 seconds, down from 0.35/0.70 seconds.
Fingers of Frost proc chance is now 7/14/20%, down from 10/20/30%.
Frost Specialization again increases all damage against frozen target by 25%.
Reactive Barrier is now triggered by any damage which causes the mage’s health to be below 50%, even if the mage was already below 50%.
Shatter now also increases Frostbolt damage by 10/20% against frozen targets.
Shattered Barrier duration is now 2/4 seconds, down from 3/6 seconds.
Glyphs
Glyph of Evocation now heals for 40%, down from 60%.
Glyph of Deep Freeze now increases damage done by Deep Freeze by 20% (no longer increases Frostbolt damage against Deep Frozen targets).

Bug Fixes
Improved Polymorph now correctly shares diminishing returns with controlled stuns.

Paladin
Exorcism damage has been increased by approximately 50%.
Holy Radiance now has reduced effectiveness on targets over 8 yards away from the paladin.
Seal of Truth: periodic damage from Censure reduced by 25%.

Holy
Beacon of Light now lasts 5 minutes, up from 60 seconds.
Blessed Life: the effects of this talent cannot occur more than once every 8 seconds, up from every 2 seconds.
Illuminated Healing absorb shield now absorbs 10% of the total amount healed, up from 8%. Each point of Mastery increases the effect by an additional 1.25%, up from 1%.
Light of dawn has been redesigned. It no longer has an enforced cooldown, now costs Holy Power instead of mana, and scale in direct proportion to the amount of Holy Power used. In addition it now heals the 5 most injured group targets (including self) in a 30-yard frontal cone.
Protector of the Innocent no longer triggers from self-heals.

Protection
Divine Bulwark now grants 2.25% less block chance per point of Mastery, up from 2%.
Holy shield no longer increases chance to block. Instead, it increases the amount blocked by an additional 10%, for a total of 40% damage blocked.
Shield of the Righteous: Contribution of attack power halved (now 60% with full Holy Power) and base damage brought up so that a level 85 paladin in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact.
Shield of the Templar now reduces the cooldown of Guardian of Ancient Kings by 40/80/120 seconds, down from 1/2/3 minutes.
Wrath of the Lightbringer now increases Crusader Strike and Judgement damage by 50/100%, up from 30/60%.

Retribution
Crusade now also has a proc on kill to increase the healing done by the paladin’s next Holy Light by 100/200/300% for 15 seconds, in addition to its current effects.
Divine Storm: This ability has been redesigned. It no longer consumes Holy Power and instead costs 5% of base mana. It shares a cooldown with Crusader Strike and hits all nearby enemies for 60% weapon damage.
Pursuit of Justice now has an 8-second internal cooldown, shared with Blessed Life.
Rebuke no longer initiates Auto Attack.
Sanctity of Battle now also causes Divine Storm’s cooldown to be reduced by Haste effects.
Zealotry no longer consumes 3 Holy Power, but still requires 3 Holy Power to use.

Glyphs
Glyph of Beacon of Light now makes Beacon of Light free, instead of increasing the duration by 30 seconds.
Glyph of Divinity has been redesigned. It now grants the paladin 10% of maximum mana upon use.
Glyph of Light of Dawn now increases the total number of most injured targets healed by 1.

Priest
Binding Heal now provides roughly double the amount of healing.
Prayer of Healing has had its mana cost reduced by nearly 30% and its base points and Spell Power coefficient increased by 20%.

Discipline
Divine Aegis is now always triggered by Prayer of Healing in addition to critical heals from all other spells.
Grace has been increased to 4/8% stacking 3 times, up from 2/4% stacking.
Inner Focus now works with Binding Heal, but no longer works with Heal.
Power Word: Barrier has been redesigned. It no longer acts as a shared absorb shield. Instead, all affected friendly targets take 30% reduced damage for the duration of the shield, which is now 10 seconds, down from 25 seconds.

Shadow
Shadow Orbs: redesigned slightly. The Shadow Orbs continue to increase damage done by Mind Blast and Mind Spike and stack up to 3 times, but now when the priest casts Mind Blast or Mind Spike (consuming the orbs), the priest gains a 15-second duration buff (Empowered Shadow), which increases the damage done by all Shadow periodic spells. Empowered Shadow does not stack. Mastery increases the damage bonus of Shadow Orbs and Empowered Shadow by the same amount, 10% with the base 8 Mastery, and an additional 1.25% per Mastery.
Vampiric Embrace healing to the caster has been reduced to 6%, down from 12% (there was a tooltip error which stated that the self-healing amount was 15%). Party members still receive 3% healing.

Bug Fixes
Dark Archangel now correctly increases the damage done of certain abilities by 4%.

Rogue
Deadly Poison base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.
Recuperate now restores 2% of maximum health, down from 3%.
Venomous Wounds base damage and attack power coefficient have been increased by 30%.

Combat
Aggression now increases damage of Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate by 7/14/20%, up from 5/10/15%.
Bandit’s Guile now gives 10/20/30% increased damage as the rogue gains greater insight, up from 5/10/15%.

Subtlety
Executioner no longer affects Recuperate.

Bug Fixes
Bandit’s Guile now applies more consistently to all of the abilities it’s supposed to modify.
Player guardians and temporary pets now stop attacking when a rogue uses Vanish, but city guards will not.

Shaman
Chain Heal mana cost increased from 17% to 20% of base mana.
Earthliving Weapon now only has 25% of its full chance to proc from a single hop of Chain Heal.

Elemental
Elemental Reach now also increases Searing Totem range by 7/15 yards.
Fulmination now has a Spell Alert visual associated with it, which appears when the shaman gets to 9 Lightning Shield charges.

Warlock
Bane of Agony damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Bane of Doom damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Corruption damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Death Coil damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Drain Life damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Drain Soul damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Immolate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Incinerate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Rain of Fire damage has been increased to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
Searing Pain damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Seed of Corruption damage has been reduced to be more comparable to other area-of-effect abilities.
Shadowbolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Soul Fire damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Demonology
Hand of Gul’dan damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Destruction
Chaos Bolt damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Conflagrate damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.
Shadowburn damage has been reduced by approximately 12%.

Bug Fixes
Drain Life: The Soulburn version of this was charging 17% of base mana instead of 12% like the normal version. This has been corrected.

Warrior
Cleave damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Execute damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Heroic Strike damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Overpower now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
Rend base damage has been reduced by approximately 17% and percent of weapon damage per tick lowered to 25%, from 30%.
Shield Block now only increases block chance by 25%, but excess block that pushes avoidance plus block to over 100% is now converted to critical block chance.
Slam now costs 15 rage, down from 20, and now does 125% weapon damage, down from 150%.
Victory Rush damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Whirlwind now does 65% weapon damage, down from 75%.

Arms
Mortal Strike now does 150% weapon damage, down from 185%.
Second Wind now heals for 2/5% of total health, down from 5/10%.
Strikes of Opportunity now does 100% weapon damage, down from 115%.

Fury
Blood Craze now heals for 1/2/3% of total health, down from 2.5/5/7.5%.
Bloodthirst damage has been reduced by approximately 17%.
Raging Blow now does 110% weapon damage, down from 150%.
Unshackled Fury now gains approximately 50% more benefit per point of Mastery.

Protection
Critical Block now grants an equal amount of block chance and critical block chance (1.5% each per point of Mastery).
Devastate no longer provides bonus threat.
Shield Slam: Contribution of attack power reduced to 60%, down from 75%, and base damage brought up so that a level 85 warrior in Heroic dungeon gear deals the same damage with no Vengeance, but Vengeance has less impact. In addition, Shield Slam no longer generates 30% bonus threat from its damage.
Vigilance no longer provides 3% damage reduction, but still refreshes Taunt and provides Vengeance.

Glyphs
Glyph of Bloody Healing increases the healing received from Bloodthirst by 40%, down from 100%.
Glyph of Intimidating Shout no longer causes targets to flee slowly, but roots them instead.
Glyph of Shield Wall increases damage reduction to 60%, but increases the cooldown from 2 minutes to 4 minutes (talented).

Bug Fixes
Taste for Blood should once again proc on every other tick of Rend.

Achievements
The Gladiator reward mounts now award Master Riding.
What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been now awards Master Riding.

Items
Mysterious Egg now takes only 3 days to turn into a Cracked Egg and has a slightly greater chance of awarding the Reins of the Green Proto-Drake.
PvP set bonuses now provide 70 of stats such as Agility, Intellect, and Strength (down from 100) at 2 pieces, and 180 of these stats (down from 300) at 4 pieces.

Professions
Perfect Gem Cutting and Mixology have been removed as trainable skills and are instead passives profession abilities. When players reach the appropriate skill levels, they will start getting bonuses from Mixology (they must know the recipe to gain the benefit) and/or cutting perfect gems (depending on their profession, of course).

Alchemy
Alchemy recipes now require Crystal Vials. Deathwing broke all the others because he’s mean (or because he didn’t want alchemists to carry 5 different vials around with them).

Engineering
The Engineering Tinkering enchants will no longer provide their bonus stats, but the activated effects will stack with other enchants. In 4.0.1 the stats were there (but hidden) and are now removed.

Bug Fixes
Several epic gem transmutes that were missing from the trainer have been added back.

Bug Fixes
Certain area-of-effect abilities are no longer ignoring the area-of-effect damage cap.
Mobs and NPCs should no longer appear to randomly gain or lose health during combat.
Re-summoning pets in Battlegrounds should no longer count towards a player’s total healing done.

Known Issues
Some tooltips may not reflect the most recent changes to certain abilities.
Worgen hunters are currently unable to learn Dual Wield.
The achievement Explore Tol Barad will not be possible to complete upon release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Source: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/patchnotes/

The creators of EVE ONLINE have something new coming down the pipe that’s sure to appeal to MMO players and fans of White Wolf’s classic pen n paper RPGs.

Click on the image above to get some more details.

]]> http://pixelverdict.com/2010/08/17/ccp-presents-the-grand-masquerade/feed/ 0 http://pixelverdict.com/2010/08/02/new-releases-august-2010/ http://pixelverdict.com/2010/08/02/new-releases-august-2010/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:47:55 +0000 Steve Power http://pixelverdict.com/?p=4047

Get your virtual cash ready, August closes out the summer with a digital buffett of downloadable goodies. Meanwhile, there’s not much happening on the retail front, with only 3 games worth talking about (4 if you hail from the USofA and like Football) in the promising, ultraviolent Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, the epic Mobbed up open world sequel, Mafia II (That collector’s edition is mighty pretty!) and of course, Team Ninja’s much hyped return to Nintendo’s classic Metroid franchise, Metroid: Other M.

Stock up on Xbox Live Points cards and PSN gift cards while you can!

August 4th

- Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (Xbox Live Arcade)

August 10th

- Madden NFL 11
- Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (PSN Store)

August 17th

- Kane & Lynch 2: dog Days (multi)
- Ys Seven (PSP)

August 18th
- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Xbox Live Arcade)

August 24th
- Shank (PSN Store)
- Mafia II (multi)
- NHL 2K11 (Wii)

August 25th
- Shank (Xbox Live Arcade)
- Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Xbox Live Arcade)

August 31st
- Metroid Other M (Wii)
- Hydrophobia (Xbox Live Arcade)
- Valkyria Chronicles 2 (PSP)
- Dead Rising 2: Case Zero (Xbox Live Arcade)

This is a wierd month, digital content being so prominent in the face of a sparse retail month. I’m all over Kane & Lynch 2, being one of five fans of the original. I’m sure Mafia II will be in my home as soon as it hits as well. What August releaseas are you most looking forward to? Or are you planning on clogging the internet tubes with downloads?

Dragon Age 2 is official, you’ll see it in the first Quarter of 2011 (perhaps on Feb 2nd? hmm? hmmm?)

The first trailer will make its presence known on August 17th of 2010.

Here’s your press release:

Rise to Power and Change the World Forever in the Sequel to 2009’s RPG of the Year

EDMONTON, Alberta–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Leading video game developer BioWare™, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), confirmed today that Dragon Age^™ 2 is in development at BioWare’s Edmonton-based studio. Dragon Age 2 is the sequel to the triple-platinum-selling Dragon Age: Origins which was named “RPG of the Year” in 2009 by Game Informer, G4, IGN, and SpikeTV. With Dragon Age 2, the world’s preeminent RPG developer is revolutionizing the genre again, infusing the universe with more action, a new, more responsive combat system and a dynamic story that is already among the most multifaceted in gaming.Dragon Age 2 traces the rise to power of Hawke, a survivor of the Blight and a hero who will transform the face of the Dragon Age universe forever. The new game is scheduled for release in March of 2011 on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC.

“Last year’s launch of Dragon Age: Origins was one of the most successful in BioWare’s 15-year history and one of the most successful new IP launches in the 28 year history of EA,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Senior Vice President of Electronic Arts and co-founder and Group General Manager of BioWare. “Dragon Age 2 will simultaneously deliver an epic story and set a new bar for intense action in the genre. We’re very excited to deliver this next bold evolution in the Dragon Agefranchise to our fans.”

“With Dragon Age 2 we are creating an exciting new entry point into the Dragon Age universe while ensuring that fans of the original game retain a sense of satisfaction and familiarity in the world,” said Dragon Age 2 Executive Producer Mark Darrah. “We are amplifying the things that made Dragon Age: Origins such a huge success while introducing a more dynamic combat system, improving the graphics, and telling the most important story in our world.”

Dragon Age 2 thrusts players into the role of Hawke, a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age. Known to be a survivor of the Blight and the Champion of Kirkwall, the legend around Hawke’s rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor. Featuring an all-new story spanning 10 years, players will help tell that tale by making tough moral choices, gathering the deadliest of allies, amassing fame and fortune, and sealing their place in history. The way you play will write the story of how the world is changed forever.

Dragon Age 2 is in production for the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, and PC. For more information on Dragon Age 2, please visit our website atwww.DragonAge.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dragonage or on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/DragonAgeOrigins.

About BioWare

BioWare develops high quality console, PC and online role-playing games, focused on rich stories, unforgettable characters and vast worlds to discover. Since 1995, BioWare has created some of the world’s most critically acclaimed titles, including Baldur’s Gate™, Neverwinter Nights™, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™, Jade Empire™, Mass Effect™ and Dragon Age^TM. BioWare operates in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada), Montreal (Quebec), Austin (Texas) and Fairfax (Virginia). Currently announced projects at BioWare include the development of ongoing downloadable content for Mass Effect 2™, one of the highest rated video games of all time, Dragon Age 2, the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s “RPG of the Year” Dragon Age: Origins, and the story-driven massively multiplayer online game, Star Wars®: The Old Republic™. In 2008, BioWare was acquired by Electronic Arts, a leading global interactive entertainment publisher. For more information on BioWare, visit www.bioware.com, or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/biofeed. To join the millions of fans already registered on our community, go to http://social.bioware.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

BioWare, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Jade Empire are trademarks owned by EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile and POGO are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. Xbox and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Steve’s Take:

Kicking things off is Jack Tretton and a joke about ponchos! IN YOUR FACE! It is on!

Killzone 3 – Sony pulls a Microsoft amd comes out waving the big gun around. Unfortunately for MS, Killzone 3 looks amazing AND it’s exclusive. Lots of 3D gobbledegook that means jack to me. Killzone 2 hits in Feburary, is in 3D, and support Playstation Move! Thumbs Up!

Playstaytion Move – Prepared to hate, must resist stupid motion controller… Sorcery looks very very cool… i mean NO! Stupid gimmick! Unresponsive rubbish! Oh forget it – Move looks pretty damned amazing,and the tech behind it is goddamn impressive. Of all the games to sell me, a Harry Potter clone and Tiger Woods. Thumbs up.

Kevin Butler is in the HIZZOUSE! Preaching the message of unity between casual and hardcore. Y’know, for a highly paid marketing machine, Butler is without a doubt… the man! This is one of the most awesome moments ever, and the crowd is devouring it. “We are GAMERS! We have gigantic TV screens in one bedroom apartments!” I see this whole sequence becoming a classic moment in the history of gaming, where all console loyalties were tossed aside. It was an awesome, and very classy move by Sony, and i’ve no doubt that Kevin Butler has gone way beyond his marketing firm roots at this point. The guy has entered the Video Game hall of fame.

Move Montage – a barrage of titles for Sony’s mo-con solution, ranging from the party games you’d expect to some suprisingly hardcore offerings. Goddamnit! It all looks like fun! The pricing isn’t completely ludicrous either. Thumbs up!

God of War: Ghost of Sparta – Why can I not get excited about this? Or the other 70 titles supposedly coming between now and christmas for the PSP? Even handed gesture.

Little Big Planet 2 – While I certainly recognize the cleverness, the first game just didn’t grab me. This time around, they’re throwing every kind of minigame imaginable into the mix. Maybe this time… Even Handed Gesture.

Playstation Plus – A paid premium service for PSN users. 50 bucks a year nets you early demos, beta access, free PSN games and PSP Minis, and free PSOne classics. Also includes Cross Game Chat with any PSN member (as long as the chat is initiated by a PS Plus subscriber). Sounds like a solid value, and everything that was free remains free, Kudos to Sony! Thumbs up!

Medal of Honor – A new demo with a look at the Unreal 3 powered single player, brief, but incredible. Some more online multi stuff, and exclusive bonus for PS3 owners! Medal of Honor Frontline (arguably the best iteration on any console) for free, in HD, included with the PS3 version! Thumbs up!

Dead Space 2 – Continuing where we left off last night. That is one bitchin boss fight. I had zero interest in this one before now. The PS3 version also includes the wii flop, Dead Space: Extraction (currently holding a very lofty 83% average score on Gamerankings) with full on Playstation Move support. Thumbs up!

Portal 2 – Gabe Newell is on stage! BOMBSHELL! The former PS3 detractor makes a few jabs about his past anti-Sony sentiments before showing some awesome footage of Portal 2, which hits in 2011. Thumbs up!

Final Fantasy XIV – Still looks good. Still not much info floating around about this one – i have a feeling some slippage into 2011 is imminent. I still can’t wait! Even Handed Gesture.

Gran Turismo 5 – Smokin hot trailer! Over 900 cars, fully 3D, Nascar, F1, WRC, and Top Gear (the awesome show, not the awesome SNES game) are all in there. Releases November 2nd! Thumbs Up!

InFamous 2 – Not much to see really. Looks like more of the same, and it’s coming in 2011. Even Handed Gesture.

Twisted Metal – Original series creator David Jaffe takes the stage and shows off some multiplayer. I’ll be honest, i think it looks like ass, and i was never a huge fan of the series to begin with. Thumbs down.

Sony did what Sony does best. they worked the crowd, and were wall to wall with games, games, and more games. The 3D tech looks cool and all, and they gave it some time, but not enough to take away from what was really important. As much as I want to hate the hell out of Move, the tech just seems to work so damned well! This is what was promised in the weeks and months leading up to the Wii launch. We’ll see how well the software pans out, but the lineup looks to be classic PSOne era 3rd party loaded Sony. This whole conference for me really hearkened back to Sony’s glory days in the PSOne era, they were fun, easy going, not too stuffy or elitist, and not too particularly concerned about technology, with their focus squarely planted on how the new tech serves the software. They put on the best show of E3 thus far, but Nintendo is ahead by a hair in my book, more because of the content. At any rate, i look at what Nintendo and sony have done today, and i see two companies who are embracing their respective heritages, who are giving their fan base exactly what they want out of a video game console. While Microsoft just seems to be more out of touch than the ‘Big N’ were at their worst a few years ago. I know I can’t freaking wait to lay mitts on a lot of Sony’s product.

On the downside, Kaz is just not savvy enough for these things, and the early reveals kind of knocked the wind out of this one a little – imagine how awesome things would have been if Killzone 3, Little Big planet, and Infamous 2 had been kept in the dark until today. I would have liked to see some more of this fall’s big guns. A Socom 4 demo would have been sweet! The suprises, particularly Twisted Metal, definitely didn’t blow me away either. Ah hell, i’m just disappointed because there’s been no mention of Dragon age II!

Final Score: A

Steve’s Take

Right out of the gate:

The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword – Nintendo hits hard and fast with a new Zelda title. Looks pretty awesome, still more gesture based than actual 1:1 movement, even with Motion Plus support. Still, it looks awesome! Thumbs Up!

Mario: Sports Mix – I’ve always hated these “multi-sport” packages. Everything is just too shallow to be fullfilling. I’ll have to take a pass. Wait? Is that DK playing hockey? Even handed gesture.

Wii Party – Snore! Thumbs down!

Just Dance 2 – I would post a picture of me shooting myself in the head, but… i’m too lazy. Thumbs down! Somebody stop Ubisoft! PLEASE! Stop them before they do any more damage.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn – Golden Sun was pretty awesome. This one is for the DS, it too looks awesome. Thumbs up!

Goldeneye 007 – No wonder Nintendo and Activision wouldn’t let Rare offload this one to Xboxlive. Remastered, re-imagined using the Daniel Craig era James Bond, and looking as hype as ever. Exclusive to Wii this holiday season. Thumbs up!

Disney’s Epic Mickey – this Warren Spector created project has been floating around for ages. We finally get a glimpse, and it looks pretty damn good. Nowhere to be seen is the old gritty steampunk Mickey that was teased in concept art an eternity ago. Thumbs Up!

Kirby’s Epic Yarn – Wow, everyone loves Little Big Planet it would seem. Kind of cute i guess, and i’m sure my daughter would eat up the cross-stitch graphics. Even Handed Gesture.

Dragon Quest IX – Ahhhh yes, the game series that made it mandatory to release games on non-workdays in Japan. Coming to the Americas in July, probably to be ignored. Thumbs up!

Metroid: Other M – This looks awesome! Team Ninja has crafted the game i’ve been wanting since super Metroid all those years ago. And it’s only a month and a bit away! Thumbs up!

Donkey Kong Country Returns – Oh by, another DK spinoff with family games and some supid dru… wait… What? This looks absolutely fantastic! It’s Donkey Kong Country, only with a 21st century lick of paint. And it’s coming this year! WOO! Thumbs up!

The Nintendo 3DS – OK, new hardware reveals are always a little vapid for me. this was no exception. Only one game is actually shown, and there’s no clear indication of how well the 3D actually works. Seeing is believing i suppose. Even Handed Gesture

Kid Icarus: Uprising – If nothing else, We know the 3DS can stand toe to toe with the Wii for graphical horsepower, and that’s no small feat! Looks pretty slick, but the gameplay seems to be more shooter-based. Still, it’s Kid Icarus, and it looks sharp! Thumbs up!

A ton of 3DS montages close out the show, promising some great titles from some great developers, including Hideo kojima’s Metal Gear Solid!

Well, for the first time in this generation, it finally feels to me that someone is steering the ship over at Nintendo HQ. In spite of my lack of interest in the 3DS, there were some damn nice titles on display, and Nintendo is warmly embracing those fans who’ve been longing for a classic return. If E3 of last year was them turning the ship around, this years was full speed ahead. Loved the lack of casual shovelware (although Ubisoft never disappoints in that regard).

Final Grade: B+ (would be an “A” if they had a decent host)