PROS:

-Really over-the-top, in a good way. The Apprentice's powers are wackily strong to begin with so it plays like Star Wars as directed by John Woo or something. Lots of explosions and crushing deaths.

-The Lightsaber combat is very arcadey and not at all like Jedi Outcast from what I can tell, but it works well. The emphasis has really been switched to force powers, but there are several saber/force combos that are really fun and actually Make Sense.

-For the first time, they got doors right. Why would a jedi trek halfway across a military installation to find a key to a locked door? Screw that, just blow the door open with blunt Force trauma (damn, that was clever. props to me).

-Stuff shown in the old trailers is acutally doable. Push them, zap them, toss an explosive at them before they notice it. Or just pick them up and mess with them a little.

-Looks really nice and while the framerate is not rock solid, it keeps up.

-Some really clever gimmicks to take out big enemies. As long as they keep it varied and don't use the same few in the full game it's going to be heavily amusing.

-Difficulty is really good. You don't feel like a wimpy little girl with a lightsaber starting out, but if you get sloppy and let yourself get heavily outnumbered you get get in trouble quick.

-Controls are good, you can control gripped objects in every axis and toss them wherever, and pretty much every damn button on the controller is mapped to a different way to kill a guy.

LESS PRO:

-Camera is pretty lame.

-A really strong emphasis on throwing stuff at people meant there was simply TOO MUCH loose junk sitting around in the environments. Hope this was just for the demo.

-Quick Timer Events for enemy fatalities. Thanks God of War.

-No dismemberment to speak of. I can throw a guy half a kilometer into a bulkhead and into a void but I can't lop his arm off? Come on now.

-Blocking is pretty weak, and should be on a bumper instead of a trigger for something so time-sensitive, hopefully this will be upgradeable and remappable.

TOTALLY NOT PRO:

-Why could Soulcalibur IV spring for James Earl Jones, but this game that features Vader as a main character, can't? Impersonator is just Bad.

IN SUMMARY, the demo was not without flaws, but very impressive and has actually excited me enough to want to buy this. I can't remember the last time that happened. As long as the full version keeps it up, it should be a hoot. It feels like this is a game that the developer wanted to make and is proud of. Which doesn't happen enough anymore.

If you've got XBL Gold, go get it now. PSN comes later today, and it will eventually show up on XBL silver if you're one of Those Guys.

PS3

• Resistance 2 - Sony's big focus this time around. Unfortunately, to me, it just looks like more of the same stuff. It's a shooter. There are aliens. Big aliens. Who cares?
• Little Big Planet - Now a suitable replacement for Powerpoint! Sony's usual "HERE HAVE SOME NUMBERS" section was presented via a Little Big Planet level. It was neat, but I just don't see how it'll be fun.
• Greatest Hits: They're $29.99 . . but, if you have a PS3 you probably already have all these games. Motorstorm, Resistance, Warhawk, COD 3, Fight Night, NFS: Carbon, Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six Vegas, Oblivion, Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
• YET ANOTHER FUCKING SKU. New 80Gb model coming in September, identical to the 40Gb model but with a larger hard drive. Sorry guys, still don't have it right. We need backwards compatibility, Wifi, and a user-upgradable hard drive. Give us that at $300 - or hell even $350 - and we'll consider it.
• God of War 3, no surprise whatsoever. No gameplay, just a trailer. Still quite a ways off.
• Infamous. Superhero sandbox, reminds me of Crackdown, but moderately less goofy. Spring 2009.
• Hilariously named "Massive Action Game", large-scale multiplayer shooter, supports up to 256 players, character growth, ongoing campaigns, squad-based combat, PS3 exclusive. You know, like Planetside, but hopefully not terrible.

PS2

• LOL 130 TITLES COMING THIS YEAR, CONSISTING OF NOTHING BUT EXCITING SHOVELWARE AND LOW-RES PORTS!
• STILL MORE SKUs! Lego Batman Bundle coming later this year for $199, features a PS2, Lego Batman, and one of the Justice League DVDs. Who the hell is still buying the PS2 at retail?

PSN

• Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty - $14.95 short sequel to R&C Future.
• lol trophies lol
• Gran Turismo TV - Racing videos. From PSN. We don't have Gran Turismo 5 for you yet, but we DO have a trip to the Ferrari plant hosted by one of the guys responsible for GT! That's . . sorta the same, right?
• HOME IS SERIOUSLY COMING GUYS OK. REALLY. SERIOUSLY. IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME. WE MEAN IT. PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US.
• Video content: Like XBL, you've got movies, TV, etc. HD, SD, rental options, streaming preview, tons of stuff. Not as amazing as Netflix integration but the content is portable. You can take anything you get from the PSN Video Store and transfer it to a PSP.

PSP

• Ratchet & Clank pack, $199, includes Ratchet & Clank Size Matters, 1Gb Memory Stick, PSN voucher for Echochrome, and comedy-option UMD of National Treasure 2.
• Resistance Retribution - Third-person over-the-shoulder portable Resistance, developed by Bend Studios
• Also coming: Force Unleashed, Madden 09, Loco Roco 2, Super Stardust Portable, Patapon 2, etc.

Non-Game PS3 Stuff

• PS3 Branded Youtube
• "Life With PS3" coming later this month. Some kind of . . news . . thing? I don't know, Tretton didn't really explain it.

SOE! HEY GUYS, REMEMBER SOE?!?!

• DC Universe Online - PC/PS3. BIZARRO AM LOVING THIS INNOVATIVE GAME.

Conference Shockers

• No showing from Square Enix
• Only 15 seconds of Killzone 2

You might want to sit down.

Here's the good news: It's actually finally being released! For reals this time! Also you get nine "exclusive" songs, though you might only actually care about one or two.

And the bad news. . well . . damn, where do you even start? The date they've set is 23 MAY 2008, a smooth 6 months after the North American release. Why'd it take so long? Who knows. Probably the stand-by excuse of "TRANSLATING THINGS IS HARD!", but it probably also has something to do with Licensing Hell.

Then there's bundles & prices. Unlike the US release where you had options of "Everything" or "Just the game", Europe gets to pick from a ton of crap. There's an "Instruments" set which just has all the controllers, there's drum and guitars sold separately, and there's just the game.

And then the real fuck-you from EA: the pricing.
Instruments Bundle - GBP 129.99 / EUR 169
Wireless Guitars - GBP 59.99 / EUR 79.99
Drum Kits - GBP 69.99 / EUR 89.99
Game-only - GBP 49.99 / EUR 69.99

This might not have sounded too bad back when the dollar was, you know, actually worth something, but look at the conversion now: 180 GBP is about 360 USD, over twice what the whole shebang retails for over here.

No firm dates or prices are set yet for the PS2 or Wii versions, the best we've been told is that they'll be out "later this summer", which in EA-speak could mean pretty much anything.

Source: Eurogamer

I will wait a moment for that to sink in.

Got it? Alright. As for why it got delayed, well, it's our good old friend and favourite whipping boy the PS3. Back in August when the delay was announced, the justification was "technological problems", and in a recent interview with MTV Games, Rockstar dev Jeronimo Barrera clarified that, stating "It's really no surprise to anybody that the PS3 was definitely a contributing factor to that." He goes on to explain that it's all cool now, but still. Delays.

But hey, who cares about delays? Game's going to be out in three months.

Right, Take 2? Right? Please? No takebacks this time.

Valve has two options to fill the Weighted-Companion-Cube-Shaped void in your life: Full-size plush (6" cube) or Fuzzy-dice-sized (4" cubes).

They've got other new stuff, too, like some new Aperture Labs Propaganda Posters and an Aperture Labs Mug.

Then there's the older stuff. If you haven't seen it, it's new to you! A few weeks back they released three lithograph prints, a set of Aperture Labs Holiday Cards, a Portal shirt, and Aperture Labs parking tags.

They also had some super neato Team Fortress 2 posters, but unfortunately it looks like those sold out. Damn. But hey, to replace one thing going away, they brought back headcrab plushes and headcrab hats. That's a good enough replacement for me.

So, get out of here! Go buy! Buy! Buy! Buy! If you hit over $50 you get free shipping!

So . . . it looks like we're down to three omni-platform super-developer/publishers now. In one corner we have EA, the only company allowed to make sports games, and who will be making sports games with tiny little incremental upgrades every year until the end of time. They also have a stranglehold on the cross-promotional branded shovelware market, and have lately been bolstering their army of developers by buying-up companies like Bioware/Pandemic.

In the next corner we have the newly-formed Activision Blizzard. Activision on their own is already in the middle of a record season thanks to Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4 and Tony Hawk 39, and as for Blizzard, well, Blizzard is always in the middle of a record season thanks to having the MMO industry by the balls. Normally when a company I like (such as Blizzard) gets gobbled up in a large merger like this I get worried, but in this case I'm not concerned at all. I'm pretty sure everyone involved knows Blizzard knows full well how to make mountains of cash without any intervention from whoever their corporate masters are this week. Furthermore, I'm rather sure everyone involved knows not to try and mess with Blizzard's practices.

In the last corner we've got Ubisoft. . . . but really, in light of this merger, Ubisoft is looking kinda weak. I mean, they've only got a tiny fraction of the licenses either EA or Activision Blizzard have rights to, and have only 3 or 4 studios compared to the jillions EA and Activision Blizzard have.

I'd watch your back, Ubisoft. Looks like you might be next.

Oh and they announced that their first game would be another multi-platform Deus Ex.

With no Warren Spector, or any of the original dev team.

The studio's general manager had this to say:

"This game was very highly rated at its release in 2000, and we have this great huge mandate to do the third one, and everybody is very excited,"

Why yes, Eidos has already tried to cash-in on the name and FAILED MISERABLY. And that time they actually had Spector and what was left of Ion Storm on board.

Oh well, we'll see if they manage to flub this one again in a year or so. Please prove me wrong, Eidos Montreal. Please please please please please.

Out of nowhere, EA has decided that it would be super neat if they went ahead and bought-out Bioware and Pandemic, to build upon their game-development Empire of Doom. If they were another less-established pair of independent developers, sure, this would be pretty decent news, since it would mean stable funding and a guaranteed publisher for whatever projects they come up with.

. . . but this is Bioware and Pandemic. When was the last time either of them had a hard time getting a publisher? And when was the last time EA bought out a developer and then let it retain its unique culture? Look at what's left of Maxis. Look at what's left of Westwood. Sure, it might turn out ok in the end, but the odds are stacked against them. Lets just hope we don't end up with MASS EFFECT '09 w/EA TRAXX.

Ok, so that sucks, but here's problem #2: The release date. November's great and all, but the 23rd? The Friday after Thanksgiving? Black Friday, the most insane shopping day of the year? Are you serious? I can't tell if this is brilliant or incredibly retarded.

Now, of course, I'm probably going to cave in a big way, but that doesn't mean I'm going to like it.

The PS2 news is nice for those of you who refuse to be dragged kicking and screaming into the new generation of consoles. Can't find anything to complain about there, but I'm really interested in seeing how they plan on making it so you can have four people playing on a PS2 simultaneously, save for requiring you to have a Multitap.

Oh well, guess I'll go back to taking my aggression out down in Rapture.

Update! Looks like There are controller-less versions, for both 360 and PS3. I guess my complaint now is that the 360 wireless guitar is inexplicably $20 more than the PS3 one, which means the Mic and Drums only tack ~$32 to the price. If the price evens out to $59 for the game-only, $59 for the wireless 360 guitar, then I think I'll be pretty happy.

First up: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars got a release date. 2 OCT 2007, on PC, PS3, 360. There's also a new build playable right now at QuakeCon, which will hopefully trickle down to us beta people some time in the next week or so. I really like ET:QW so far, but it definitely needs a lot of improvement before release. From what we've heard from devs over at Splash Damage, the new build should be a major step closer towards that goal, but I'll wait until we start hearing stuff first-hand from people playing it this weekend before I start believing it.

After that we've got a bunch of little announcements that came out of nowhere. For instance, Quake Zero. Apparently it's some sort of free web-based incarnation of Quake III's multiplayer. I have no idea how the hell this is going to work, but id says they've got a team of devs working on it. So . . we'll see?

Then there's Quake Arena coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Due to the success of Doom on XBLA, porting some version of Quake seemed like a logical next step.

And of course, another big one: Nearly every game id has ever released is now available on Steam. Right now. The only game I can think of that's missing is Quake IV, but that was really a Raven game . . but then again, so was Hexen, Heretic & friends. The individual games range from $4.95 for Wolfenstein 3D or every Commander Keen game (!!!!!), to $19.95 for newer releases like Doom 3 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. But the real draw right now should be the absolutely ridiculous multi-packs they've got running right now. Quake 3 + Q3 Team Arena are presently cheaper than either game alone, all the Hexen and Heretic games are currently only $9.95, and seriously do I have to mention Commander Keen 1 through 5 for $4.95? And if you feel like being a big spender, you can get all 22 games in one mega-pack for $62.95, a total savings of over $150. id and Valve obviously know far too well what happens when you put incredibly high quality games down in impulse-buy price range.

And finally, I already linked to it in the comments, as promised, but here's the Rage debut trailer I mentioned last night. It doesn't show a whole lot more than the WWDC video did, but it's much more clear, and really does look impressive.