Last week, I took a trip to the EA Redwood Shores to get some hands on time with Skate 3. I briefly played the original Skate and found it to be a nice alternative to the Tony Hawk series but ultimately being a casual skate boarding fan, I decided to pass. A year later EA released Skate 2 and remembering my experience with the original, once again I decided to pass. So when EA asked me to attend a community event for Skate 3, I was unsure if i was the right person to attend but ultimately felt that since I am casual skateboarding fan, maybe I am the audience that developer Black Box is trying to capture.

Keep reading after the jump for my impressions of Skate 3.

Man, there were a lot of RPGs at PAX this year. With Blizzard showing its trifecta in the far corner and the entire floor dotted by various forms of online roleplaying conduits, it’s weird how a little game by a small company can possible pierce the veil lying over the whole event. But it seems that's what has happened with Torchlight.

One cannot stop but think that Torchlight looks fairly similar to something else that we’ve seen a lot of lately. You travel underground fighting all sorts of fantasy creatures using spells and upgradable equipment, all of which is randomly generated by some background mechanic. Which is what you can expect, really, when the game comes to use from the designers of the first two Diablos and Fate. What this game adds, however, is a bit more charm.

CDV Software seem to be up to its usual at PAX, a few meddling releases that it can’t get rid of, some easy rerelease, and some underground RPG that nobody has heard of. They were showing off two DS games that were wandering in the wings waiting for an adequate release date; I Heart Geeks, a physics-based game delayed due to a complete aesthetic redesign by Marc Ecko, and My Little Baby, delayed due to reasons of...well...being of little interest to anyone. I’ll pass on commenting on these.

It also previewed the high-definition version of Serious Sam: The First Encounter, which is exactly the same as the original version only better looking, and coming to Xbox Live as well as PC. On account of it being the exact same game, I’ve got nothing more to say about it.

Probably the only interesting offering from CDV this time around is the American release of Divinity 2, the sequel in-pretty-much-name-only of Divine Divinity, an action RPG which takes all the basic options and warps them into something that either is pretty cool or possibly over the top.

During E3 2009, I had the pleasure of visiting Pandemic Studios and getting some hands on time with The Saboteur.

First and foremost I want to give a big thanks to fine folks at Pandemic, they made my visit an enjoyable one. But you are not here to read about my trip to Pandemic, you want my impressions of The Saboteur! This preview looks at the most recent build of the game at the time of E3, although Saboteur is still undergoing development for its Winter release.

The Saboteur is visually stunning and has a lot of promise, but great visuals and potential are not the foundation of a blockbuster title. This is not to say that The Saboteur will not live up to its potential, it simply means that the build I played isn't perfect, and Pandemic still has a lot of work to do. But enough of that, let's get on with my impressions after the jump.

Since the dawn of video games, Aliens and Predators have not really gotten along. In fact, they’ve been pitted against mankind and each other for the last twenty-plus years on every single platform except the Nintendo GameCube (the discarded Dreamcast port counts as a game if the discarded Dreamcast counts as a console). The latest conflict staged by Rebellion Games (those guys who made Alien vs. Predator and, you guessed it, Aliens vs. Predator) doesn’t look to correct that oversight any time soon either -- in fact they’re only compounding the issue, seeking to release Aliens vs. Predator on the 360, PS3 and PC in early 2010.

At this year’s E3 we were given the chance not only to watch the perennial Predator, leaping through the jungle fully camouflaged, but we also got to see some Colonial Marines pee their pants face off against a wave of Aliens in the cramped corridors of a space colony. The lighting and visuals at this stage definitely look impressive, but that much is only fun when you’re watching Ahnuld spring cunning traps.

What counts most is the way a game plays, and that is something especially important for this title considering the fact that not only are all three factions (Marines, Aliens, Predator) playable in the single player story, they will all be pitted against each other in the multi-player arena. It’s a balancing act tough enough to give Philippe Petit pause, but is it one that the development team at Rebellion can pull off?

Aliens and Predators can hit the jump for more -- the Marines’ boots never seem to leave the ground. (Master Chief would be so ashamed.)

During our endless stream of appointments at E3 2009, we managed to snag a little treat. Sony was preparing a behind-closed-doors showing of Heavy Rain, the upcoming title from Quantic Dream. Luckily for you, dear reader, we were able to snag a seat for the developer-led demonstration.

Although the development folks are always keen to avoid divulging important details at events like this, we came away with a much more in-depth feel for Heavy Rain. We caught glimpses of everything from the core gameplay to a nearly-naked female character. Oh, and swearing... lots and lots of swearing.

The graphical integrity is certainly the first thing that popped out to me during the showing, but it's certainly not the concept that left the most lasting impression. And while there are plenty of positive things to be said about the game at this point, there's also one major point that seemed to soil my feelings toward the title.

Read about my gut reaction after the jump.

All images in this article are clickable for larger versions

It’s difficult to get an impression of a game in fifteen minutes. Some demos are just so woefully shortshrifted that it’s hard to get a clear impression of what to expect, especially when there’s not a lot of info about the game to begin with. Such is the case of Ninja Blade, which offers a single, short, and unpronounced glimpse of the game in the demo that will be hitting the Xbox marketplace March 9th.

But that doesn’t mean there’s not a wealth of information available. For example, I now know there’s a company called From Software, which elicited the response, “But which one?” when its very plain logo appeared upon the screen. I also learned this is the team responsible for the Tenchu and Otogi series, so these guys probably know what they are talking about. So, let’s take a swing through the demo, shall we?

Fly through the air after the jump.

Hudson games have been hard at work proving their prowess on the Wii, with games like Fishing Master World Tour and Marble Saga coming out this winter, but it also offering some weird-enough-to-rock Wii games in the near future. Check out some of these quirky games after the jump.

Linger in Shadows is not a game.  When you download it from the PSN, it says it’s a game, but in reality it isn’t.  Instead, it is an experiment to see just how far the limits can be pushed in downloadable titles. While on the surface it appears to be a simply confusing video, there is something strangely satisfying about this unique piece of art.

Hit the jump for our full thoughts on this unique piece of interactive art.

My computer happens to be stuck in this weird gaming purgatory.  On one hand, I can’t play a lot of older games that I grew up with because my computer is too new.  On the other hand, I can’t play many new games because I happen to be too poor to afford to upgrade.  This usually means that I’m stuck playing Peggle, Sam and Max and Audiosurf.

It was with this in mind that I signed up for the “Good Old Games” beta test.  For those of you unfamiliar with what the service is, here’s the rundown:  G.O.G. is a digital distribution center for a large number of old games published by Interplay and Codemasters.  Games cost between $5.99 and $9.99 (with a majority costing $5.99) and are DRM free.  All the games on the site have been re-worked so that they will work with both Windows XP and Vista.

Hit the jump for our full thoughts on the service.