We decided once we hit 1000 followers on twitter it’s about time to deliver our latest competition. So what better way than to team with our personal friends over at InsertCoinTee’s – we’ve been long term fans of their products and believe they’re some of the best in the industry - through their subtle designs - we’re not just saying this as they’re the sponsor, either!

Rules

• The winner will be selected at random after 4pm GMT on the 19th October 2011
• The winner who will have 48 hours to respond before the prize will once again be up for grabs.
• This competition is unavailable to GE/InsertCoin Staff Members
• There is no limit to the number of times you can enter this competition
• You MUST be following the @GamerEuphoria account at the time of the draw
• You MUST be following the @InsertCoinTees account at the time of the draw
• To make the competition more fun, we decided that InsertCoinTees should pick the T-shirt at random. If you win, supply us the size you require and your address, and then wait for your “mystery” Tee. All tees can be viewed at www.insertcoinclothing.com

To enter simply follow GamerEuphoria and InsertCoinTee’s on Twitter, then retweet this tweet.

We will then pick a number out of our random number generator and match it up with the corresponding username for the prize.

Good luck!

We were there to witness OnLive’s official UK launch in Earls Court last month. Unsurprisingly as the doors opened that day the excited crowd raced to the luxurious OnLive booths to check out the system. We were also lucky enough to get free OnLive systems that day – too which we are very grateful. But if you’ve not yet got your hands on the OnLive system or are still on the fence, let Andre tell you what the system is all about – and why you should own one:

Be sure to view our official YouTube channel and subscribe – more exclusive EuroGamer Expo 2011 interviews/impressions coming very soon!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be sure to view our official YouTube channel and subscribe – more exclusive EuroGamer Expo 2011 interviews/impressions coming very soon!

Click here to view the embedded video.

So far we’re having an absolute blast with Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and you can too – all you have to do is enter for a chance to win!

Rules

• We one have one copy to give away – which is on Xbox360 under the PAL region.
• The competition will run until 10pm (GMT) 30th August 2011.
• We will then contact the winner who will have 48 hours to respond before the prize will once again be up for grabs.

To enter simply follow us on Twitter, then retweet this tweet. Alternatively you could follow us on Facebook and link this competition on your Facebook status then comment on our page to let us know.

We will then pick a number out of our random number generator and match it up with the corresponding username for the prize.

Good luck!

For the past few months speculation regarding the new generation of consoles has been at an all time high. With claims of new hardware to be announced within the next twelve months – that will lead this generation to a close – and into a whole new exciting era entirely.

Without a doubt it’s a bit early to jump the gun and say there’s nothing big left in the tank. But it got us thinking about how much this generation has pushed the limits of the industry and launching gaming into the fastest growing entertainment median – and with that, a collaborative entry about some of our hand chosen special memories this generation has provided.

Your best Gaming Memory of this Generation – What would you pick?

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Andy – Routine Gears of War Multiplayer

In 2006, it become routine to come home at the end of the day, turn on the Xbox360 and join the guys for a session of Gears of War multiplayer. It was the first game on the console that kept me coming back time after time – it wasn’t just the story, it was the overall experience. Some of my fondest memories online were spend with friends on Gears of War. The mad rush at the start of the match to get possession of the power weapons. The way you learnt other players movements. That quad kill with a sticky frag grenade. Never have I felt to mad at a game, but so satisfied moments later. It was a hard game to get in to the groove – but once you did, it was fantastic.

Gears of War 2 has all the necessary ingredients to be an even better all around package compared to the first – but somehow it felt a little off. Perhaps it was the lag, or even the weapon changes. Or maybe we just got too attached to those classic maps in the original. While it was still a fun game, the spark the original had wasn’t as prominent.

It was 5 years since I felt that spark again – but on April 18th 2011, upon receiving a press beta pass for Gears of War 3 Beta, I felt it. Roll on September 20th.

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Sean – The World of Warcraft Investment

My most treasured modern day gaming memory stem from a game that I hold with some prestige. World of Warcraft was my first major investment (in both time and money) in a MMORPG. Logging in and creating my first character from a selection of familiar races and lore (I was a big Warcraft fan before the days of WoW) was a fulfilling experience and set the mood perfectly. Walking around familiar locations and talking to familiar characters within the game was something that instantly appealed to me, it’s an odd experience seeing all the environments from a new more detailed perspective. The best part   of WoW (back then anyway) was the social aspect of the game.  I started the game with a few friends I knew from school so I began the game within a very small community as it was.

As I invested more time in the various fun and engaging activates within the game the feeling of community vibe intensified and soon people who knew each other only through game were freely chatting on Ventrlio like they’d known each other for years. The game core quality was undeniable with high quality content such as dungeons and quests but the games quality was improved tenfold when experienced within a strong community. While I loved the game’s content its the community I remember. The banter in guild chat, the chat on Ventrlio and the mixture of a group of people from all walks of life coming together to enjoy a game we all loved, this is my fondest modern video game memory.

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Alex – Street Fighter IV Bringing back Memories

I had a little bit of a hard time thinking of this one, but honestly I think my favourite memory would have to be playing Street Fighter IV online for the first time… then being beaten almost instantly.

Of course not for that reason, though. I have been a big fighting game fan, especially a Street Fighter fan since the early days.  So when I heard about Street Fighter IV I flipped, it was enough reason to pay for XBL membership. I remember as soon as I got it, I immediately put the disc in and started an online lobby. The feeling of competing against somebody across the world filled me with memories of playing its predecessors with friends for hours on end.

Needless to say I bought Super Street Fight IV and enjoyed every moment of it.

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Jorey – Gears of War Leading in to the Next Generation

Picking my favourite gaming memory from this generation is probably one of the easiest choices I’ve ever had to make. Sure, there’s several memories that I look back at fondly; the launch of Street Fighter IV in particular was the catalyst of a long foray of sleepless nights that lasted long after the sun had already set and risen, but there’s one memory so simple that stands high and tall above everything else: the launch of Gears of War.

I’m not even anything remotely close to a crazed Gears of War fan, but its launch clearly stands out to me for one specific reason: It was the first game that truly felt like the next generation was finally here. The jaw-dropping visuals, the fear-inspiring Kryll, the chilling atmosphere and soundtrack – it was unlike anything I had ever played, but the thing that I remember the most fondly was the unique bond shared with my friends while playing Gears of War co-op. I’m not just talking about regular old Xbox Live headset co-op, I’m talking about two or more friends sitting in the same room with a big HDTV taking turns playing a game that just absolutely blew our minds. While the memory of having a group of friends huddled around the TV shouting out enemy locations, yelling for assistance, and cheering for joy may be one of my earliest memories of this generation, it’s also the one that’s resonated with me the most.

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Brad - Achievement Unlocked

My best moment of current generation gaming is a hard choice. I’ve had many good moments, from being in a top 3 world ranked guild in World of Warcraft, to the Gears of War 2 days, to, well, lots of other moments.

But one stands out above all for me, and it happened whilst I was playing Aliens vs Predator on the 360. I decided I was going for the full 1000g on it, as not many had done it because it was too hard. There was my challenge. I did all the hard parts, the nightmare campaigns, max rank online, and it left me one online achievment left – The Uninfected. The premise was simple – be the last to survive in an 8 man mode (with the other 7 hunting you as Aliens), and last 30 seconds. It was harder than sounds – if people didnt make it near the end, they quit. And that voided my achievement. Then one day, I got it, with about 2 seconds to spare. I could see 3 Aliens running at me, and I was doomed. Luckily, the timer went and my achievement popped. I actually danced around my living room for joy.

And ever since then, achievements give me far more joy than they used too – now I go for all of them.

As always, we’re in the middle of the ’summer draught,’ where the rate of games being released declines compared to the start of the year. As publishers are holding back all of their titles for the holiday season – we gamers finally get time to finish up the games we’ve purchased, let our wallets recover somewhat. Though, the recovery process would have been easier if we hadn’t have blown all that money on THOSE games. You know the ones we’re talking about – the ones where you look back and think ‘why?’

That Game of 2011 You Bought and Wished You Hadn’t? – These Are What We Picked

Sean – Dragon Age 2

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Andy – Duke Nukem Forever

I know, I picked the obvious choice here. It’s my own fault for getting my hopes up, really. But prior to release I had a feeling it was going to be at least an enjoyable playthrough – when you put all the bugs and issues to one side. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

When a game has been in development for 15 years and has completely changed developers, warning flags arise immediately. To most this won’t be a disappointing game, because frankly, I’m guessing most people didn’t even get their hopes up. The worst part is, when playing through Duke Nukem Forever, every so often you see glimpses of potential, signs of what made the original such a success. Though it’s like when Gearbox picked up the remains of this title, they were too afraid to push the limits – afraid to make that one joke that would get everybody’s attention. Instead they replaced it all with toilet humour and bad mechanics.

My own fault, really.
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Brad – Alice:Madness Returns

My most dissapointing game of the year is an easy choice, by a mile. For me, it’s Alice:Madness Returns.

I was quite looking forward to it truth be told. But, within the first quarter of the game I was incredibly dissapointed.

To put it bluntly, it’s boring. It looks nice, sure. But its boring. It’s reptitive. Run, jump, kill, run, jump, kill. And thats it. I play all my games on the hardest difficulty, and I enjoy the challenge. But Alice’s Nightmare mode is far too unforgiving. The balance is completely off.

It’s a shame. The idea was nice, but it was implemented poorly. I should of listened to the poor reviews the game got instead of the hype.

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Alex – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Ocarina of Time is far from disappointing. It is amazing and it is actually one of my all-time favourite games… On the Nintendo 64. But on the 3DS it somewhat disappointed me. The gameplay felt like a drag on the 3DS, as whenever I was becoming absorbed in the game, the 3DS would flicker its low battery light.

I’m not saying it’s a bad remake, but personally I was expecting a little more additional features from a game that was released 13 years ago. Although it’s not a bad game, I was disappointed compared to what it could have been. I can’t be the only one right?

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If you didn’t know, this spectacle was brought to you, not from a big budget development team, but from a small devoted group of people. One of which agreed to bring you the following interview to recap the post release feelings of Bastion, how it come to life and what’s in store for us next.

Let me introduce to you, the man who was in charge of writing and design, Greg Kasavin:

• Did you find that working in a smaller team was more beneficial and rewarding? And do you think it provided a sense of charm to Bastion?

Greg: I can’t say enough good things about what it’s like working on a smaller team and on this team in particular. The cofounders of Supergiant Games and I used to work together at Electronic Arts in Los Angeles, on the Command & Conquer team. It was a great, high-performance team, but at the same time, we never could have made a game like Bastion working for EA. Our small team size here at Supergiant not only meant fewer people were around to shoot down any of our ideas for what could make an interesting play experience, we were also able to work much faster than usual. If someone on the team has an idea, we can typically get it into the game in the same day in some form. Rapid iteration is the best way to get to a high-quality result.

What’s more, each individual on our team was as invested as possible in the end result, because he or she owned a major portion of the game experience. For example, without Darren Korb our game wouldn’t have had its incredible soundtrack or audio. Without Logan Cunningham, it wouldn’t have had its voice that’s so essential to its character. And so on. Gavin Simon wrote all our tools and created a game engine that could run fast and smooth, plus he did all the gameplay programming. Andrew Wang got the whole thing running beautifully on the Xbox 360 — we couldn’t have shipped a console game anytime soon without him. Amir ran the whole studio while serving as lead designer. I wrote the story and narration. To whatever extent the game is charming, I think that’s partially a byproduct of the game being unfiltered. We didn’t have too many cooks in the kitchen so the output of our individual efforts I think was very true to our intentions.

• How daunting was Bastion, knowing it was the first project as a studio?

Greg: This was by all means a daunting project in some ways, though our team has a good amount of experience both working in the industry and working with each other, so I think we knew what we were in store for. We pushed ourselves to the limits, knowing what those limits were, in the interest of making the kind of game that we hoped could leave a lasting positive impression on players. It was a real sink-or-swim situation, as well. We knew that if this game didn’t succeed, neither would our studio, and at best then we could come crawling back to working for other people. But the feeling of being an independent studio was so refreshing that we were fully prepared to fight for that through our work on this first game.

I think we’re rather pragmatic as a team. We have confidence in our abilities but also know that it’s very easy to fail and very difficult to succeed, so if nothing else, we work hard to try and make the most of this opportunity we have to create games on our own terms. Not everyone is so lucky.

• Did Bastion turn out exactly as you envisioned? Or did you have to change throughout production?

Greg: It’d be dishonest to say that Bastion turned out exactly as we envisioned because it’s not the sort of game that started with a grand and specific vision. I can say, though, that the experience of playing through the game does create the kinds of feelings and sensations we hoped the game would provide. We wanted to explore the action role-playing genre from a different angle than most games in the genre, and create a more active type of game that could leave a lasting impression through its narrative. Also the central idea for the game’s story and theme came about pretty early on and is very close to what we had in mind. Even the name “Bastion” dates back to the earliest stages of the project. But the specifics of the play experience happened iteratively, and major aspects of the game like its art style and even its use of narration weren’t there from the start. The game’s feature set grew over time as we looked at what felt lacking and built it up piece by piece.

• What was the inspiration behind Bastion? It feels like a mix of retro role-playing, but with a focus on action adventure.

Greg: Bastion started with a small idea, which was to create an action role-playing game where you built the world around you. It was meant to explore some of the positive feelings we had around returning to town in other action RPGs like the Diablo series. Sometimes returning to town feels like a total slog in games like that, but at other times you get all these great feelings of planning your next move and feeling safe and secure – we wanted to build on that. Through the course of making Bastion, we also gravitated toward this idea of wanting to make the kinds of games that sparked players’ imaginations like the games they played as kids. So if you get kind of a retro feel from it, that’s part of the reason, though we always knew we were going for more than just nostalgia.

Other than that, there’s a huge list of games that inspired us, but there were no one or two “go-to” games we looked to during development since we were focused on doing our own thing. I also need to give credit to some of our predecessors in independent game development, such as Braid and Castle Crashers and Plants vs. Zombies. Back when we were at EA we were blown away by the quality and character of games like this, and they helped motivate us to want to strike out on our own.

• Do you have any plans on releasing Bastion, or any future titles, on platforms other than Xbox360?

Greg: We have a PC version of Bastion in the works and slated to be out there later this year – hopefully soon! We’ve opted to develop versions of the game one at a time in the interest of hitting the best possible quality, since we’re a small team and multiplatform development carries some pretty costly trade-offs. Beyond our PC version, time will tell. We can develop for any platform that makes sense, we just need to be very smart about how we apply our resources since we want to keep on doing what we’re doing for a long time to come.

• The visual style of Bastion is very bold and beautiful, was there a particular focus on the games look?

Greg: Bastion’s look and entire presentation were very important to us because we wanted to make an atmospheric game that just about anyone could pick up and start playing. A strong and cohesive visual style, a rich setting, and great audio I think are all essential to creating atmosphere in games. And in our case, we found our look when Jen Zee our art director joined the project. This was at a time when the game’s visual style was still undefined but we knew the kind of tone we wanted and knew the fiction. Jen was able to take those details and create a look that felt just right to us. It captured the beauty and whimsy of a storybook, but with the kind of richness and emotional depth we wanted for our game.

• Are there any plans to release Bastion related merchandise such as art books, posters and models etc? We’ve noticed a lot of people on Twitter and discussion boards asking about them.

Greg: It’s awesome that people want more Bastion! It’s funny in some ways because we aimed to make the game feel very complete and self-contained. First and foremost, we’re very interested in releasing our soundtrack in an appropriate form, though we’re still looking into that as of this moment so I can’t make any promises. The response to our soundtrack has been just incredible. We’re open to extending Bastion in the kinds of ways that folks out there have been asking for, as long as we can find ways to do it at the right quality level. I hope people keep telling us what they want when it comes to this stuff.

• What are SuperGiant Games’ plans now that Bastion is out of the way? What’s your next step?

Greg: We don’t consider Bastion out of the way just yet, especially with the PC version still to come and the 360 version fresh out the gate! It’s safe to say our lives will be revolving around Bastion for some time still to come, and considering how much we love this game and this world we’ve created, we’re plenty happy about that. At the same time, we have a lot of ideas about where we could go from here. We just want to keep on making games using the type of process that led to this first one. I believe games can be incredibly powerful both through the physical sensation of play and also through their unique ability to communicate with players through the use of narrative, and I sincerely hope we will one day be able to look back on a streak of games from our studio that express these qualities.

We would like to thank both Greg Kasavin and SuperGiant Games for allowing us to conduct this interview

We know some of you may be feeling down today, knowing you could have already been playing El Shaddai today if not for the delay – but to make it a little easier on you, here’s an exclusive interview we got when Gamer Euphoria sat down with Sawaki Takeyasu from Ignition Entertainment.

• How did the concept of El Shaddai come up?

Sawaki: The original idea to create a game based on the Book of Enoch came from Ignition’s UK-based head office several years ago, but we then took the concept and made it our own in Tokyo. I was careful to maintain the overall narrative and themes from the apocryphal Biblical texts, but I did take some creative liberties in order to make the story a little more relatable for modern players. Since these allegories are part of the oral tradition and were constantly being changed over time, I felt that I had some freedom to add tiny elements to the story by modernizing it a bit.

• The art style is very striking, was there any inspiration taking from the likes Studio Ghibli?

Sawaki: There are many, many influences in my approach to creating El Shaddai’s visual style. First, some of the ideas come from deep within my own head – I’ll wake from a deep sleep or a fleeting reverie and have an inspiration that I can translate onto paper. But you’ll see direct nods to other outside influences throughout the game, too, including some famous Japanese woodblock artists, ancient African and Native American sculptures, even some references to famous anime and manga. Everyone on the team grew up loving the works of Studio Ghibli, so there’s probably no escaping the crucial influence of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.

• The story is based on the Biblical book of Enoch, was there a specific reason for this choice? And do you have any slight concerns in terms of sales in territories that practice alternative religions?

Sawaki: As I said before, the initial idea to use the Book of Enoch came from our counterparts in the West. Of course, we are concerned that some people might not understand our intent with El Shaddai, but since it is not based on the canonical Bible, I don’t think there will be too much backlash. It’s been an interesting learning process for all of us….In Japan, we often view religion as more a spectrum of beliefs, and citizens here often will describe themselves as following multiple belief systems and philosophies. Being exposed to other belief systems is always interesting, in my view.

• The game appears to be very artistic, how did the creative processes begin and what was the basic concept when the project began?

Sawaki: Although I’ve worked on many games in the past, it’s true that working on El Shaddai was my first experience as the Game Director, so it was definitely a learning process. That said, I knew that this was exactly the type of game that I always wanted to create if given the opportunity, so I had to stand by my convictions even if they might initially have seemed strange. But thankfully my team was patient and eager to go on this exciting journey with me, so in the end, I feel that it was a worthwhile endeavour. I had a general guideline for what narrative ground I wanted the game to cover, but much of the design, gameplay, level layout and pacing evolved as we moved from pre-production into proper game development.

Unllike in the West, when game developers tend to finish each level independently, we used an approach in which the entire game gets worked on simultaneously, so that we be more fluid in our approach to its design.

• The recently announced delay of the game in the US came as a surprise, but will the delay effect the EU release?

Sawaki: No, there will be change to the European release date. The slight delay in North America was a result of some last-minute logistical challenges, but I’m confident that the fans there will be patient and that the game will be well worth the wait.

• Ignition recently claimed that El Shaddai may appear on the Wii U and Playstation Vista, whats your thoughts on both systems and are they something that appeal to developers more or less than the Xbox 360 and PS3?

Sawaki: I believe that Ignition has speculated about how they might want to bring the El Shaddai universe to these new platforms, but nothing has been announced yet. I’m curious to see what the fans in North America and Europe will want from any prospective future offshoots from the first game. Clearly, both the Wii U and PS Vita offer all sorts of exciting new control methods and connectivity options, so I feel that anything is possible with these new devices, and the El Shaddai universe is rife with a multitude of avenues that could be explored. I’m personally a big fan of the iPad, so I’m curious what might be possible with touch-panel enabled consoles.

• In regards to the Wii U and PlayStation Vista, do you plan to use the technology offered by both systems to enhance El Shaddai or to add new gameplay?

Sawaki: That’s definitely what’s exciting about these new platforms, but as I said, this is all purely speculative at this point. I’d rather focus on getting players to try the core El Shaddai experience first!

• When developing a game that carries a very Japanese identity do you ever have any doubts about how the game will perform in North America and Europe?

Sawaki: Although there are many aspects of El Shaddai that are truly ‘Japanese’ and it was made primarily by a Japanese team, I feel that its influences and inspirations are so cross-cultural and universal that I always hoped that it would touch the hearts of gamers all over the world. Nothing would make me happier than for El Shaddai to achieve critical acclaim and find fans in Europe and North America.

We would like to thank both Sawaki Takeyasu and Ignition Entertainment for allowing us to conduct this interview.

We’ve decided here at GamerEuphoria – due to your overwhelming support this past week – we feel the need to give something back to our community. So we have got our hands on a batch of Xbox Live Market Point cards, ready to dispatch to some lucky readers. With the ‘Summer of Arcade’ and Bastion getting released this week – what better time?

We have a total of three points cards to be won, we have a 2100 points card, 1600 points card, 800 points card.

Rules

• We have a total of 3 prizes to be won – so that means there will be THREE winners!
• The competition will run until 10pm (GMT) 26th July 2011.
• We will then contact the winners who will have 48 hours to respond before the prize will once again be up for grabs.
• I have been told they are redeemable in both US/EU regions – if any problems occur we will replace them.
• If you win one prize, you will be exempt from winning the remaining two – come on, its only fair!

We are very excited to see what 2011 brings to the table, as well as allocating funds and deciding what we will be playing in the next 12 months. Next up is Ubisoft. What are we to expect – Assassins Creed!

E3 2011: Ubisoft press conference Key Notes:

This conference is covered by Sean Halliday

22:33… Rayman Orgins is the first game to take the stage with a live demo. Long demo looks fun but would wear off quickly.

22:41… Mr.Caffine (not his real name but he does seem quite hyper) comes to the stage talking about Ubisoft’s history and gaming innovation.

22:43… Driver: San Francisco is the next featured game and a trailer for the game begins.

22:48… A trailer for a new title begins, hints of what could be Far Cry 3. The game looks very nice with decent audio and lighting and texture detail and a stunning environment. The trailer isn’t what it seems as it’s in fact a live demo. There’s some nice combat mechanics in play involving a knife, almost looks Jason Bourne like. The player hijacks a chopper which is shot down and the demo ends, very impressive and the game is confirmed as Far Cry 3.

22:56 Gearbox software hit the stage talking about Brothers in Arms but it seems a curve ball as they begin to talk about a new World War 2 game. The game seems very much in the vein of Inglorious Bastards with a cartoonish more comic twist. The game is known as Brothers in Arms Furious 4 (wish they would drop the Brothers in Arms title as it doesn’t suit it)

22:59… The Tin Tin game (based on the soon to be released film) a video is played of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson talking about Tin Tin.

23:02…Ghost Recon Future Solider is the next game up. A live demo begins to be played. A screen reveals the game is being played via 4 player co-op. The demo is quite long and show cases some good action, very decent look at what looks to be a fantastic game.

23:12…A free to play Ghost Recon title is announced, looks promising.

23:16…Track Mania 2 is announced with further focus on sharing player based content.

22:33… Rayman Orgins is the first game to take the stage with a live demo. Long demo looks fun but would wear off quickly.

22:41… Mr.Caffine (not his real name but he does seem quite hyper) comes to the stage talking about Ubisoft’s history and gaming innovation.

22:43… Driver: San Francisco is the next featured game and a trailer for the game begins.

22:48… A trailer for a new title begins, hints of what could be Far Cry 3. The game looks very nice with decent audio and lighting and texture detail and a stunning environment. The trailer isn’t what it seems as it’s in fact a live demo. There’s some nice combat mechanics in play involving a knife, almost looks Jason Bourne like. The player hijacks a chopper which is shot down and the demo ends, very impressive and the game is confirmed as Far Cry 3.

22:56 Gearbox software hit the stage talking about Brothers in Arms but it seems a curve ball as they begin to talk about a new World War 2 game. The game seems very much in the vein of Inglorious Bastards with a cartoonish more comic twist. The game is known as Brothers in Arms Furious 4 (wish they would drop the Brothers in Arms title as it doesn’t suit it)

22:59… The Tin Tin game (based on the soon to be released film) a video is played of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson talking about Tin Tin.

23:02…Ghost Recon Future Solider is the next game up. A live demo begins to be played. A screen reveals the game is being played via 4 player co-op. The demo is quite long and show cases some good action, very decent look at what looks to be a fantastic game.

23:12…A free to play Ghost Recon title is announced, looks promising.

23:16…Track Mania 2 is announced with further focus on sharing player based content.

23:18… Track Mania 2 trailer begins consisting of user made content, the game is set for release in September, Mania Planet is set for Shooter Mania and RPG mania. Lots of user based content to be had

23:21… Raving Rabbits on Kinect , a live demo starts and it looks like Whack-A-Mole…with rabbits. It’s a party game…’Made Better With Beer’ should be on the cover of this one.

23:25…Ubisoft begin to talk about Just Dance 3.  October 11^th is the set release date.

23:29… Rock Smith is shown and a video is shown talking about the game. This isn’t a guitar hero it’s more of a training tool. The game is set for release in October in the US, no mention of EU date.

23:32… Your Shape 2 is announced

23:33… Assassins Creed Revelations hits the stage; forgive me if it don’t note every part of this showing as I have little interest in this title.  A trailer begins to play. It’s a nice trailer but doesn’t show any gameplay.

23:39… A live demo begins. The demo shows a few new combat moves , the demo looks pretty and seems to run smoothly. Good showing from the demo as it ends with something of a cliff hanger. Release date this November

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Highlights:

Ghost Recon Future Solider looks utterly fantastic

Improvement on last year’s awful showing

Far Cry 3 looks brilliant and it’s surprising it’s playable

Assassins Creed Revelation demo was solid

Low points:

Brothers in Arms being turned into a joke after years of being seen as more dramatic and serious take on World War 2 games.

Rayman Origins looks a bit weak as does Tin Tin

Demo’s lasted a bit longer (especially Rayman)

Final Grade:

C