After serious consideration for all of the games that I played at E3, I narrowed it down to my personal favorite games and some of the reasons why. These games are not in any order as they all were equally good in their own way.

Marvel vs Capcom 3

This was a no-duh moment as this fighting game not only looks AMAZING but also the game play is solid with a huge roster of playable characters. With new characters announced almost daily and the legion of followers at its side, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 easily looks and plays better then Street Fighter 4 ever will.

Brink

Brink has kind of been in the dark for a while. Announced last year at PAX, Brink has come a long way since the original gameplay was shown. It’s a standard FPS but it adds elements from several games that beef it up. Think Borderlands meets Mirrors Edge meets Team Fortress 2 all blended together into a nice mix of awesome. Along with its ability to meld the single player with the multiplayer, Brink is definitely one to look forward to later this year.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Being a big fan of the Assassin’s Creed series, I first met Brotherhood with extreme criticism as it seemed like they were killing my beloved franchise. After the E3 demo and the explanation of how the single player works, Brotherhood claims to have a full story that take place right after the end of AC2 and a sweet multiplayer in which you get to take the blade to your friends.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

What can we say besides it’s the new Zelda game? The graphics are sweet, the combat with the Wii Motion Plus was tons better then the last Zelda, and the beattle thing is a neat addition to Link’s arsenal. Even though it’s still like the other Zelda games, it won’t stop me from dropping my money for the game on the day of release.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

One of the next huge releases for the MMO genre, The Old Republic is Bioware’s first attempt at taking their superb story telling prowess and melding it into a multiplayer game for millions to enjoy. While the 20 minute demo of the game was limited, I felt more empowered and badass as a low level character then I ever did in any game at max level. As more details of TOR come trickling out to the masses, I am awaiting the day I find the game on store shelves.

Checking out all the mood lighting-bathed video game madness at E3 this week has got me thinking.  It’s kind of awesome point in time for video games.  It’s definitely come into the mainstream.  Gamers (some anyway) are actually “cool” and are no longer the sun-starved anti-socialites hiding away in dark, dank basements that belong to their grandparents.  Video gaming culture in general has started to shift away from placing more value on pixel-pushing power and towards real innovation -toward evolution.  Prime example: Music Games… the guitar-based ones to be exact.

I’d say music video games have a come a long way since the days of the Miracle Piano Teaching System or Mario Paint’s composer feature.  Back then, it seemed like everyone thought of the Miracle was just gimmicky… not a viable gaming option of the hardcore.  Was that concept even around back then?  The hardcore gamer?  As we all know… RedOctane and Harmonix changed all that back in 2005 when they released the first installment of the Guitar Hero juggernaut.   Then all hell broke loose, the two split up with RedOctane becoming a property of Activision and Harmonix courting the folks at MTV games.  Harmonix ended coming out  their very awesome RockBand franchise.  The two have been trying to one up each other ever since.

That brings us to now.   When the original Guitar Hero came out, this is what the controller looked like:

A ukulele-sized non-reasonable facsimile of an actual guitar.  With 5 fret buttons and a little plastic strum paddle, the original GH guitar controller, bore very little resemblance to its real life counterpart, in both look and style of play.

As of E3 2010, this is what the controllers look like:

Left: Power Gig's guitar, Right: RockBand 3's guitar

Cah-razy!  What?  You say they’re pretty much real guitars!?  How astute of you, anonymous reader!  While Rock Band’s 3 guitar controller opted for 102 fret buttons with actual pluckable strings, new addition to the fray Power Gig boasts a controller that is a bonafide six-stringed fretted instrument, magnetic pickups and all.  To be fair, at E3 Harmonix also demoed a Fender Squier made for RB3, which was basically an actual Squier electric guitar with fret sensors and midi capabilities.

Tell me you Guitar Hero/RockBand aficionados haven’t had this conversation before, though.  When Rock Band introduced the drum pad and everyone realized it was a little like playing actual drums, I know more than a few of my friends joked around about how they’re going to better approximate playing actual guitar… well, there it goes.

Combine the new guitar controllers with Rock Band’s new Keytar accessory, and the lines between video game and digital guitar teaching system start to get blurred even more.

I guess my point is: once we get to the point where the games are called “How Well Do You Play Real Guitar?”, how do we evolve from there?  Will the uber-creative minds of today’s game designers find another way to push the envelope?  Or will these music games rot away in their stagnancy?  You know… like the Police Academy movies.

What say you, Gamers?

Being a big fan of the original Dead Space and the ending that it had, having a sequel announced was met with skepticism and doubt. After seeing the demo from E3 nearly all of the doubts were cleared away in a instant. While the setting seems like the original game, there are plenty of new places including parks and outdoor areas that Dead Space couldn’t go. Some people think that the horror element of the game would be killed by taking away all the dark and dank areas; however that is totally wrong as all the new areas make the game more intense as now they can come out of every direction (especially in zero gravity).

Other things added were bigger monsters and better weapons. The monsters at times can get intense as you still have to cut off limbs, however some monsters can have 5-10 limbs that all attack you at once. This makes the game more of an action shooter while keeping the creepy feeling of the original.  Zero gravity was also amped up as you can now move in mid air which makes the zero gravity sections more exciting and intense. With those features and the new weapons to slice and dice monsters apart, Dead Space 2 looks to be on par or better then its predecessor.

Taken from the page source of the Marvel vs Capcom 3 official site comes a list of characters. Seems pretty complete. This might be an official deal! What do you think? Is this all that we get? Whom are we missing? Let us know below!

ryu
chun
bison
volnutt
roll
zero
chris
wesker
dante
trish
morrigan
felicia
joe
frank
frankalt_chuck
mike
arthur
wolverine
storm
cyclops
magneto
spider
venom
hulk
iron
ironalt_war (war machine?)
america
thor
doom
skrull
strange
dormammu
deadpool
marvel

Or to be organized:

Marvel: Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, War Machine (alternate Iron Man outfit) Elektra, Thor, X-23, Magneto,  Shuma-Gorath, Deadpool, Super Skrull, Taskmaster, Juggernaut, She-Hulk

Capcom: Ryu, Mike Haggar, Frank West, Chuck (alternate Frank West outfit), Spencer (Bionic Commando), Dante, Chris, Morrigan, Arthur, Amaterasu , Albert Wesker, Zero, Chun-li, Viewtiful Joe, Trish, Tron Bonne, Hsien-Ko, Akuma, Felicia, Bison, Roll, Volnutt

Pretty awesome! Check out more Marvel vs Capcom 3 stories below!

PS: This is merely rumor and speculation from a NeoGAF article. This information has not been verified by Capcom.

Super excited for Marvel vs Capcom 3 and can’t wait to get your fight on? Head over to Das Cheap to pre-order Marvel vs Capcom 3 for the lowest price on the net!

Want a chance to win a copy of Marvel vs Capcom 3? Participate in the Old Skool Beatdown 2 and you could win a free copy on launch!

Following is a screen capture from Marvel vs Capcom 3 at E3 2010. Click to make it bigger.

Judging by the number of spaces on the character select grid, it seems likely that Marvel vs Capcom will have at most 20 characters.

The outer left and right rows are crossed out because of the way they intersect with the Profile panes. The bottom row is crossed out because of the text that sits over it and the top row because it wouldn’t be balanced with the bottom row.

Capcom is way too good of a developer to have a poorly laid out character select screen so that leaves us with a maximum of 20 characters. Unless, they have a super grid they are hiding from us?

Stay tuned to Das Reviews for more great gaming news, previews and reviews.

It’s about damn time! Finally we get to see this long awaited game in motion! No more mag scans! Let the hatering commence! Check out Marvel vs Capcom 3 in action! We got Captain America, Wolverine and The Hulk vs Dante, Ryu and Ironman!

Check out more great Marvel vs Capcom 3 stories below and stay tuned to Das Reviews for more great gaming action!

In the race for the creepiest adult game or the cutest kid’s game is Kinectimals. Using Microsoft’s new motion based control system Kinect, Kinectimals allows the player to play with virtual versions of Mother Nature’s deadliest predators. They won’t bite! Check out the gameplay video below!

Stay tuned to Das Reviews for more great E3 info!

The next game to try and take Call of Duty off the FPS throne is the new game in the Medal of Honor series.  Coming into the fight armed with new mechanics, gameplay tweaks, and the modern era, Medal of Honor shows off the goods with at E3.

The demo was only multiplayer but that is fine as that is the bread and butter of any FPS game that wants to survive longer then a few days. The level they had to offer was close quarters in a Afgan village with interiors and exteriors that people could weave in and out of. MOH plays like a splice of Call of Duty and Battlefield as they have a neat perk / killstreak system but they also awarded points for different types of skill shots (headshots/longshots).  They have the same Aim Down Sights gun play with a little destruction thrown in.  That combined with gun customization makes Medal of Honor poised to take out Call of Duty as the best modern shooter.

Check out these beautiful full res screenshots below!

Das Reviews just sat down to a screening of id Software’s upcoming Rage. We call it a screening because we sat in a small, dark theater with a giant screen and a kicking sound system. We got treated to a walkthrough of some different aspects of the game and some different levels. Bethesda also gave us some new screenshots for the game and they are freaking huge! Click on them to check the graphics in beautiful high res glory!

First off, the game is gorgeous. The draw distances are great and the level of detail in character models and levels are outstanding. The levels are very immersive in their atmosphere. Characters go about their business and everything has that “asteroid hit here and now we’re dealing with it” feel to it. The water graphics are phenomenal. Like Bioshock phenomenal.

The demo started off with you receiving a mission to head to town from Crazy Joe, a crazy dude named Joe. Immediately after, you are ambushed by a pack of mutants. We fended off the mutants with our airblade, complete with decapitations and limb removal and the standard pistol.

We headed to the nearby town but were ambushed by a couple of dudes on buggies. Luckily we had machine guns primed and ready. A couple of emergency brake skids and dropped landmines later and we were on our way. Just before, we came across a guard tower. One sniped shot and an explosion later and the tower was taken care of. Enemies rag dolling through the air never gets old.

We headed to Wellspring, an entry level neutral town where everyone was suspicious of you but used their eyes instead of their guns to show it. We saw the Auto District complete with inflatable gorilla. Yes, you can race your cars. Shortly after arriving, the well alarm sounded and we were sent down into the town’s well to stop a gang from poisoning the town’s water supply.

We wandered through a dark dank sewer and combatted a gang that used acrobatics and the environment to get the upper hand on us. Luckily, we had shotguns and crossbows on us. We approached fights offensively and defensively. We could run in guns blazing, prime ahead with grenades or drop a gun turret and protect it while it turns the gang to cheese.

One of the most intriguing parts of the demo was the amount of tools at your disposal. Weapons come with standard ammo and special ammo and you can select those on the fly. The team said their goal was to introduce new weapons and tools with easy to grasp situations and let the player decide what to use and when. You also get gadgets like RC bomb cars and defense turrets at your disposal. You can create your gadgets on the fly, no workbench or town needed. You want to send in a RC car with a bomb attached instead of throwing a grenade? Go ahead!

We then skipped ahead to another point in the game that had us storming an abandoned, run down building populated with a gang of mean guys. Fighting our way through the rubble, we reached a car garage where we were attacked by a muscle car wielding a chain gun turret. A mob of guys attacked and the chain gun held us under cover. After taking care of the gang, we got what we came there for: car parts.

To round off the demo, we jumped ahead to a main city, the aftermath of skyscraper destruction. A gang of mutants attacked us. While fending them off, a giant mutant packing a grenade launcher jumped into the mix. We took care of him with our shotgun. Gotta love the shotty. The demo ended with a building size mutant crawling over some rubble and screaming at us. Guess he didn’t like us capping his kids.

Note to developers and publishers: when you show off a game and someone from the team is demoing it, try and pretend like you don’t know where the enemies are coming from. That pack of enemies that is supposed to surprise you while you are fighting the giant grenade launcher packing mutant? Make believe that you are surprised. It make the experience more immersive for the crowd.

We are really excited to see the final product. The game looks very good for still being in development and it’s obvious that its coming from the mind of John Carmack. It’s possible that one could take this as a Borderlands knock-off and they would be justified. The world has the same feel as Pandora but the graphics are very different.

Superlative Adjectives used in this article: gorgeous, outstanding, phenomenal, crazy

Late to the party or fashionably late? Microsoft has officially unveiled the Xbox 360 Slim. Its a shiny black, sleek piece of hardware. It looks straight out of a sci-fi movie. The console will be available later this week in stores and at the normal pricing for the current (now older) model. The console will come with a 250 gig HD and Wireless N. The new look will match with the Kinect unit pretty well.

Check out the photos below and the Official Press Release after!

Xbox 360 is fully loaded with new features and still comes with everything you know and love. Here’s a feature list to make sure you don’t miss any of the newest Xbox 360 250GB parts.

Form Factor: Sleek, lean and gloss back finish with chrome accents. Place vertically or horizontally in any living room entertainment center.

Touch Sensitive Buttons: Turn the Xbox 360 video game system on/off and eject a disk with the swipe a finger.

Whisper Quiet: Whether you’re playing a DVD disc or from the hard drive, or navigating the dashboard, with the all-new and much quieter Xbox 360, the only noise you’ll hear is your own laughing, cheering and playing.

Wi-Fi: Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi for fast, easy connection to your friends and entertainment on Xbox Live.

Hard Drive: 250GB internal, swappable hard drive for even more storage. To access, remove the bottom panel by pushing the small tab toward the front of the console.

Kinect-Ready: Custom Kinect port on the back of the console that directly hooks up to the Kinect sensor for controller-free run.

USB Slots: Five USB ports; three in the back of the console and two in the front for easy plug and play.

AV Connections:
AV Cable included for standard definition TV connection
HDMI port for high definition TV connection
Optical Audio out port integrated on back of console for AV system connection

Power Supply: Smaller and more efficient. Xbox 360 250GB and Xbox 360 Original power supplies are not interchangable.

Wireless Controller: The award-winning Xbox 360 Wireless Controller matches the console in all black with color-matched thumbsticks and directional pad with a touch of gloss and chrome to complete the look.

Backward Compatible: Your favorite accessories and games will work with Xbox 360 250GB (Xbox 360 External Hard Drives and Memory Units are not compatible.)

Accessories: Customize your Xbox 360 250GB with matching black accessories, including favorites such as Controllers, Wireless Headset, Chatpad, Quick Charge and Play and Charge Kits and more.

Key Internal Components Changes:
Fan: Moved from two small fans to one larger fan for improved acoustics.
Chipset: 45 nanometer and integrated CPU and GPU
Wi-Fi: Integrated wireless capability