The Modern Warfare series has a new installment, and this will push gamers to the limits.  World War III has erupted and the player must now try and stop the total annihilation of America, Britain, and the other Allied nations.

Want to find out more?  Read on!

1.       A Brief History (of the Series)

The Call of Duty series originally started as a World War II based first person shooter franchise.  The first few games were relatively straight forward in this regard.  The player would be put in the shoes of a soldier who fought through various major battles of the World War II campaign.  The player would end up seeing the war through the eyes of an American, a Brit, and a Russian.  Some parts of the campaigns would be disturbing (learning about “not one step backward” was a bit of a shock), but for the most part it was very simple.

Then Infinity Ward created Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, transforming the series entirely.  Instead of continuing with the overused idea of a World War II shooter, Infinity Ward wanted to put players into a situation they could relate to.  Modern Warfare placed the player into locations that felt real even if the player had never visited the Middle East or modern Russia.

This new plot continued with Modern Warfare 2, but with a slight twist.  Infinity Ward wanted to use new plot devices to get players engaged with the storyline.  It was no longer good enough to simply show a file and say that a particular enemy was a target; the player had to feel like they fully understood the reasoning behind why an enemy was an enemy.  This was especially true for situations as confusing as a fictional world war, which was where the series seemed to be leading toward.  The plot was no longer about governments fighting terrorists or good versus evil.  It was about one side fighting another trying to vie for power.

So Infinity Ward included the infamous “No Russian” level.  It places the players in the shoes of an undercover operative who has infiltrated a group of terrorists.  In the level, the terrorists (including the player) walk into a Russian airport and open fire on civilians.  The player can go through the level without killing any civilians (or can skip the level entirely), but the whole idea is that the player’s character has to blend in with the terrorists, so shooting civilians is fair game.

2.       What We Know

Now we have Modern Warfare 3.  Our sneak peek at E3 revealed a relatively small chunk of the overall gameplay.  We do know two things, however.  First, Modern Warfare 3 will focus on an all out World War III scenario.  The demo displayed during the Microsoft Press Conference clearly showed New York Harbor under siege by a modern military force with warships, fighter jets, missiles, and submarines.  The opposing force is almost certainly Russian, although I can’t confirm that with 100% certainty.

The part that was not shown during the press conference was the “Mind the Gap” level.  In it, British intelligence is trying to track down a suspicious package that is being imported into the country.  The infiltration to steal the package goes wrong and the player ends up in an all-out firefight with what is almost certainly some sort of Russian terrorists group.  The fight eventually leads to a vehicle chase in which the player and other British forces drive down into the London Underground while going on a full-on guns-blazing car chase with some escaping terrorists.

Turns out the terrorists have somehow commandeered some Underground trains as well, and start shooting at the player from those.  Unfortunately for them, one of the trains collides with an escaping terrorist truck and ends up derailing in a huge display.  One car flips end over end barrel-rolling through concrete pillars.

3.       What We Expect

While the management at Infinity Ward has undergone a huge change in the past two years, we’re not expecting the overall development style to change much.  Players will be put into violent situations in order to forward the overall storyline, but the violence should not be as personal (nor as graphic) as Call of Duty: Black Ops was.

I am not expecting another “No Russian”-esque level either.  I believe that Infinity Ward will have other ways to convince the player that the enemy is the enemy rather than having to resort to that particular type of plot device again.

I do expect a lot of warfare in territory that may be extremely familiar to some players.  The vast majority of the gameplay should take place in America, Britain, Europe, and Russia, since these are the three main countries involved.  There may also be gameplay in the Middle East (a likely ally of Russia) and Africa.  I don’t expect China to become involved (it hasn’t had a presence in the previous games).

Multiplayer will also be back, which means that the same community that has been so infamously divided in the past four Call of Duty games will also be making its appearance again.  The Call of Duty community has lots of very new, inexperienced players but a far larger percentage of players that are extremely skilled and spend hours upon hours playing Call of Duty’s multiplayer.

This problem will only be further compounded by the inclusion of the new Call of Duty: Elite service.  Players will be able to join clans and groups, which will further divide the hardcore players from the “less dedicated”.  Unless you’re a serious Call of Duty fan, I would highly recommend looking to other games for an enjoyable multiplayer experience.

We got to test this new Resident Evil spinoff at E3.  What can we expect from this game?  More zombies, of course.  Other than that, you'll have to read more to find out!

1.       A Brief History (of the Series)

The Resident Evil series is an extremely recognizable and extremely popular series of zombie-based games, movies, and even books.  The original Resident Evil games fit into a genre called “Survival Horror”, which was designed to both scare the player and get the player to try and make very calculated decisions.  Things like ammunition and health were extremely scarce in these games, so the player had to make the right decision at the right time in order to conserve ammunition while avoiding getting hurt.

It’s a lot more difficult than it sounds.  While the zombies in the original Resident Evil games didn’t move particularly fast, there weren’t many ways to get around them.  Players had to know what they were doing before they moved into a new area or else the player could be quickly overwhelmed by even a few zombies.

Upon the release of Resident Evil 4, the series had begun to get the “been there, done that” feel to it.  How many times could you solve the same puzzles and shoot the same slow-moving zombies before it got boring?  So Capcom decided to go a different route for Resident Evil 4.  The camera angles, ammunition levels, and enemies were changed to make the game much more like a third-person shooter than a survival horror.  Players now had little issue with finding ammunition, but instead had to deal with enemies that were both stronger and faster.

2.       What We Know

Now we have Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, an odd spin-off of the main Resident Evil games.  This game takes Resident Evil 4's steps toward the "third-person shooter" genre and slides down a very slippery slope.  This game has very little “survival” elements to it and instead substitutes a heavy dose of shooter.  The player picks from one of about six different characters.  Each character has a specific skill set, such as medic or heavy gunner, or sniper.  However, each character can pick from any of the weapons available.  A medic can use a machine gun and a heavy could use a silenced SMG.  It makes very little sense, but it also makes very little difference.

Every weapon is almost useless.  I watched a guy use a machine gun to fire dozens of rounds at even the basic zombies to very little effect.  I learned from his mistake and switched to a 3-shot burst-fire assault rifle.  I assumed that it was the inaccuracy of the machine gun that translated to more rounds required to take down enemies.

I was partially right, my 3 shot required only 6 rounds to take down the basic zombies, but it was still 6 full rounds to take down one zombie, and there were easily dozens of zombies running around.  It made me feel like I was shooting BBs instead of armor-piercing assault rifle rounds.

The catch was that the player has a knife that he can use to great effect on zombies.  Seriously, it’s easier to kill zombies with a knife than it is with any weapon.  I occasionally saw players simply giving up using their weapons and simply running into the fray and knifing everything in sight.  It defied all logic.

At least the storyline will cater to the die-hard Resident Evil fans.  It takes place during the same events as Resident Evil 2 and 3, and the player even has the option of chasing (and eventually killing) one of the main characters from Resident Evil 2.

Frankly though, unless there are some serious improvements to the damage of the weapons, I would avoid this game like the zombie plague.

3.       What We Expect

Not much really.  The quantity of violence is high, but the quality is relatively low.  Shooting enemies did very little (most barely reacted at all).  The player is able to perform a heavy execution with the knife that is an instant kill, and I definitely put that to liberal use since it was the easiest way to take down enemies quickly.  Players use anti-infection spray if they get bitten or else they will turn into zombies and attack other players.

Human disfigurement will be high since both the zombies and some of the “bio-weapons” are created from mutated humans.  Anti-law will be an issue as well since the player can choose to side with either Umbrella Corporation (who is trying to cover up their involvement with the outbreak) or a sort of Special Forces group (who is trying to end the outbreak).

If we gave awards, Skyrim and Gears 3 would tie for best games of E3.  Why did Skyrim score so highly in our books?  Read this preview to find out!

1.       A Brief History (of the Series)

Anyone who knows and understands the term “open-world RPG” will have heard of Bethesda Softworks, or at least one of the games they have developed.  While they may not have made the first open-world RPG, they are the best developers working in the genre by far.  They have created some of the most popular and well-known games ever to hit the shelves.  The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series are two of the most recognizable series of all time.

For those of you that don’t know about these series (even though you definitely should), here’s the basic idea.  Your character is introduced to a particular situation, you’re given a tutorial to introduce you to the controls (and the specifics of the story) and then you’re shoved out into the world to fend for yourself.  No limits, no linear gameplay, no specific place that you have to go.  You’re free to explore almost any place in the entire game at any time.

The Elder Scrolls games take place in a mythical, medieval-based world with a lot of different races and religions.  Players are able to pick specifically which race they want to play and what type of abilities they want to use.  Magic has always played a prominent role in both combat and conversations.  Combat has involved only medieval-style weapons such as swords and bows.

Make no mistake, these games are huge.  The landscape in Oblivion is well known for its size, and the amount of gameplay hours will definitely translate well.  In Oblivion, the original version of the game could easily have hundreds of hours of gameplay for each player.

2.       What We Know

We got an in-depth preview of Skyrim at E3, so here’s what we found out:

First, the landscape is going to be huge.  Just from the brief glimpse of the map and the environment players can tell that the playable area is going to be huge.  I’m not sure if it will be larger than Fallout 3 or Oblivion, but it will definitely provide more than enough space for the player to explore.

Secondly, magic has seen a complete overhaul.  No longer will players be casting balls of slow-moving colored light at enemies.  Now, if a player casts a fire spell, fire shoots from the player’s hands.  Frost spells cause large icicles to form on the objects, landscape, and characters that the player targets.  The player can also learn and use “shouts”.  Shouts are magical words that the dragons use to breath fire, ice, or other magical effects.  The player is able to shout these words (in the game, not in real life) and cause the same magical effects.

Thirdly, the menu system has been completely overhauled.  Those of you that have played Oblivion or Fallout know that the inventory system for the game was cumbersome at best, downright aggravating at worst.  For those of you who don’t know, I’ll pose a scenario.

Let’s say that in Oblivion you wanted to sell some of the items you had in your inventory.  Specifically, you wanted to sell a few wolf pelts that you had acquired.  After you found your way to a store and opened up the screen to start selling your items, you’d have to make your way over to the “miscellaneous” category (one of five) and then scroll all the way down.  And by down I mean way down.  Past all of the books or other readable materials you may have accumulated, past all of the keys you have accumulated (which grows significantly as a player gets farther into the game), and past anything else the player may have accumulated that isn’t a potion, weapon, or armor.  It was an extremely inefficient process that desperately needed to be solved.

That has been changed completely.  The menu system now uses a set of categories to make the search for everything much faster and more efficient.  Items and spells that are used most often can be added to a “favorite” category for even easier access as well.

The leveling system seems to have been overhauled as well.  While the exact specifics haven’t been released, each skill category allows the player to earn additional abilities designed for that skill.  So for instance, if a player develops the “block” skill enough, the player can then learn the ability “shield wall” which increases the efficiency of blocking.

The player’s actions also have direct and indirect impacts on the game.  We were told that if a player goes to a local lumbermill and either kills the workers or trashes the mill, the entire economy of the surrounding town would be impacted.  It can also be assumed that if a player helps the local population that their economy will be positively impacted as well.

The storyline has also been left relatively vague.  We know that the game surrounds the return of the dragons.  Long thought to be extinct, the dragons induce fear upon anyone who even mentions their name.  So the re-emergence of dragons would definitely be cause for alarm.  However, not all dragons are out to destroy humanity, so hopefully the player will have some dragon allies in the game.

There are a good number of other specific extras we learned about through our questions, but I’ll highlight one more thing in particular.  Bethesda has confirmed that the PC version will allow for modding tools on their new Creation Engine.  This means that all of the positive and negative elements included because of the PC mods will definitely be back.

3.       What We Expect

In terms of mature content, if it was included in Oblivion it will definitely re-emerge in Skyrim.  We do know that the violence level has increased slightly, but anyone who has played games like Oblivion knows that combat is not the only element in this game.  In fact, the player can go hours without entering combat provided they hit the right quests.  There are lots of conversations and new elements to explore.

Magic, mods, religion, and substances will all score very high for the exact same reasons that they scored highly in Oblivion.  We don’t expect many “miscellaneous” elements to be required, but we won’t know any real specifics until we get our hands on a copy of this game.  Either way, we’re expecting this game to be even more amazing than Oblivion.

This game surprised us the most at E3, in a good way.  I was ready to write this off as just another Need for Speed title on par with the dismally poor "Undercover".  However, after watching and playing the demo, we were definitely impressed.  Will this game be more like Most Wanted or Hot Pursuit?  Read more to find out!

1.       A Brief History (of the Series)

The guys at EA Black Box are well known for making some awesome Need for Speed games.  They started out making the widely acclaimed Underground back in 2003 and since then have been producing hit after hit.  They made what is arguably the most popular game in the Need for Speed franchise, Most Wanted and its sequel Carbon.

With the exception of Shift, all of the Need for Speed games created by Black Box have surrounded the world of underground street racing.  Most of these games have the players trying to escape the cops while racing other people for money, reputation, parts, or even cars.  They’re all definitely high in the anti-law category.

2.       What We Know

We managed to not only get a theater preview of this game at E3, but we even got a chance to demo it.  So what did we learn out of one level?  Actually, a lot.  Black Box has brought back the idea of illicit high-speed high-stakes street racing and cranked it up to 11.  The main character, Jack, has to drive as fast as he can from San Francisco to New York.  Black Box wouldn’t say why he was “cannonballing”, but just that it was a matter of life or death.

And the demo we tried emphasized that.  In it, Jack gets in a race with four other racers and ends up getting t-boned by a mafia-owned SUV.  Surviving that somehow, he jumps out of the car, gets chased by the mafia from rooftop to rooftop, and ends up almost landing in a cop’s lap.  He beats up the cop, steals the cop car, and begins trying to race out of the city.

Unfortunately for him, either the cops or the mafia are still onto him and they bring a friend, and by a friend I mean a helicopter mounted with fully automatic machine guns.  The player must drive through traffic down the streets of Chicago while trying to swerve to evade the helicopter’s spotlight because otherwise the cop car will get shot up.

The helicopter eventually starts shooting and destroying civilian cars (presumably with civilians in them) in order to try and stop Jack.  This leads to the helicopter blowing up a gas truck on a two-lane street.

3.       What We Expect

Definitely more like what we saw in the demo.  Jack will have to fight his way past mobsters and cops alike in order to make it to New York.  Hopefully we’ll soon understand why he’s running, but for now I’m assuming that it has something to do with the mafia.  Otherwise, why would they want him so badly?  Gambling may become an issue in it, but I’m not considering it very likely.  Gambling debts aren’t usually something you’d risk your life to try and fix with an illicit street race.

The Duke is back.  The game that should not exist is finally coming out.  Action movie fans rejoice, we have another chance to be the world’s biggest chauvinist.

Will this game be appropriate for children?  I doubt it.  And by doubt I mean I am 100% certain that no child should play this game.  But read on for more information.

Anyone who has been gaming since at least 1995 is very familiar with “The Duke”.  Duke Nukem is a satirical shooter series that is meant to make fun of every machismo action hero ever to have crossed the silver screen.  Duke is a steroid-riddled chauvinist whose only mission in every single game is to save the women of earth from an alien invasion.

Yes, aliens have come to earth to steal our women, and only The Duke can save them.  That’s the entire premise of every Duke Nukem game from the first game way back in 1991.

Every real game in the series (and I say “real” to exclude the rather poor spin-offs that have somehow seen the light of day) has been a hotbed for violence and sexuality.  Duke Nukem 3D was host to graphic violence, nudity, and even an alien impregnation and birth.  While Duke Nukem 3D came out before the ESRB was an industry standard, it definitely would have gotten a “Mature” rating if it were released today.

Duke Nukem Forever has become a gaming industry joke not because of its content but because of the fact that the game has been officially in production since about 1998.  Yes, this game has been in production for 13 years.  Many dedicated gamers thought that this game would never be released, and it almost never did (the developing company 3D Realms was shut down a few years ago after its parent company accused the 3D Realms management of not meeting deadlines).

But now, Duke Nukem Forever is officially going to be released and soon.  It’s the game that should never have been, but finally is.

The sample pictures alone have been summing up the content of this game fairly easily.  Duke Nukem Forever is going to include girls in little to no clothing who are getting abducted by aliens and Duke is going to have to blow up every last alien in order to get them back.  The girls are going to fawn all over Duke like he’s the last man on Earth.

If you really want a summation of what this game is going to be like before we even rate it, check out two things.  First, check out this trailer.  The beginning shows the ESRB rating for this game (Mature, no surprises) but also lists the things it got the mature rating for.  Even with my distrust of the ESRB, the length of the rating on this game alone should highlight the fact that this game is not meant for kids.  At all.  Period.  Do not give this to your kids.  Please.  Really.

If that didn’t manage to convince you, actually watch this trailer.  I can’t be positive, but that part where Duke puts his thumb up might be him in front of a glory hole.  If you don’t know what that is, look it up.  I’m not going to tell you.  Really, go look it up.  I’ll wait here.

...

Did you look it up?  If not, good.  The rest of the trailer will give a good indication of what you can expect.  If you did, you know what I’m talking about.

I’m still not quite sure how this game didn’t get an AO rating and I haven’t even played the demo yet.

Duke Nukem Forever is going to include a lot of violence and sexuality.  No longer is the sexuality going to be as simple as nudity or Duke giving money to strippers and saying “Shake it, baby”.  The Duke’s going to have even more dialog than before, and the cutscenes should add an extra heavy dose of sexuality.

Don’t let your kids play this one.  Seriously, even before I do the official rating I’m seriously considering making this the only game to have a minimum age rating of 18.  Duke Nukem contains the absolute worst elements of every 80s action movie ever made.  If you have a problem having your kids watch “The Terminator” or other violence-heavy action movies that include gratuitous sex scenes, you’re not going to want to let your kids play this.

SSG has been fortunate enough to play three of the four weeks of the beta and uncovered as much as possible about this highly-anticipated final act to the Gears of War series.  What can we expect from Gears 3?  Read more to find out.

Gears of War is a fairly well-known series.  Its style is relatively unique in that it is definitely not a glorification of war.  The battlefield of Gears of War is not some distant land or planet.  It’s supposed to feel like the entire world has been torn apart and there’s no chance to get it back to what it once was.  War isn’t an option.  You’re not fighting for rewards or weapons or planets.  You’re fighting for survival.  Humanity fights because if it doesn’t, it will be exterminated.

From the very first trailer released way back in 2006, this game has been a haunting vision of the horrors of war.  It’s not nice, it’s not happy.  You’re glad to be alive, but you’re constantly trying to find that one trick that will turn the tide of the war in humanity’s favor.  Unfortunately, that trick never seems to materialize, as every major tactic the humans try ultimately falls far short of expectations.

Those of you who have played the first and second Gears of War games will understand that this series is well known for its over-the-top violence.  The first game included the Lancer, which is an automatic rifle with a chainsaw bayonette.  In short, it's a chainsaw on the end of the gun that the player can use to rip enemies in half for an instant kill.  It's gruesome and bloodly and it's one of the reasons the game is so popular.

For those parents ready to write off the entire series now, hold on a second.  It's definitely violent, but the violence is so over the top that it's hardly the level of realism that games like Modern Warfare or Black Ops achieve.  At no time did I ever feel like I could see myself chainsawing people in half because of what I did in Gears.

That being said, the guys at Epic Games came up with new, creative "executions" for Gears 2.  Executions are finishing moves that the player can use to kill a damaged enemy.  In Gears 1, the only executions were the Lancer's chainsaw or a curb stomp, where the player turns over an enemy and violently smashes the enemy's head with the player's boot.

In addition to the original 2 executions, Gears 2 introduced executions unique to other weapons.  Amongst others players can smash an enemy down with the sniper rifle, decapitate an enemy with the torque bow (basically a composite bow), and smash an enemy's skull with the boomshield (a large, heavy metal shield).  It’s definitely as violent as it sounds.

The Gears 3 Beta has revealed a lot.  This game will be even more violent than we expected.  Almost every weapon has some sort of unique execution and some of the executions are extremely brutal.  Two executions in particular caught my attention.

First, the Lancer has a new execution of downed enemies.  The player will flip the enemy over onto its back then drive the chainsaw bayonette into the enemy’s stomach and rev hard.  The result is a bloody spray flying everywhere.

Second, the flamer has an execution of downed enemies as well.  The player will flip the enemy over onto its back then push the nozzle of the flamer into the enemy’s stomach and pull the trigger.  The enemy will flail as flames spurt out of its body.

The visual graphicness of this violence isn’t much worse than what the previous Gears games have included, but the quality of the sound has significantly increased.  Instead of sounding like a saw going through wood, chainsaw kills sound like the player is hacking through wet meat.  It sounds much, much more realistic.

This game will not be appropriate for kids under 16 simply for the violence.  The beta alone has made this clear.

I don’t expect anything worse than what was seen in the beta to be apparent.  There might be some minor substance use, but there is no basis in the history of the series.  Sexuality will not be an issue.  Neither will pretty much any other category.

Human disfigurement may come into play.  If humans can become lambent (basically infected by a sort of lava/oil substance), then disfigurement will be a factor.  However, I don’t expect this to be an element.

The online community may become more of an issue than what was previously included.  While the Gears 3 community is more mature than the Call of Duty or Halo communities, it will definitely have a set of players that are more skilled than others.  The matchmaking system in the beta seemed to be fairly good except when it came to parties.  Hopefully the guys at Epic Games fix this problem.