Some folks love finding enjoyable new smaller games to download and play from the Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation Network. Not being one of them personally, it’s only every once in a while that one really grabs my attention. The last big one to blow my mind was Limbo, the hauntingly beautiful tale of a boy making his way through a dark and deadly dream world.

But there’s a new game that fits this description that has me incredibly intrigued, and that game is called The Unfinished Swan. [...]

Free-to-play games are getting bigger and bigger each day (something game studios who make big money from you dropping $60 on a game surely despise), but most of the ones we’ve seen are expectedly poor in quality.

At this year’s E3 convention, however, a couple of upcoming free-to-play games titled DUST 514 and Hawken were shown off, and they could just be worth keeping an eye on. [...]

During the E3 convention last week, I had the opportunity check out the gameplay for the Star Trek game, Namco Bandai’s first-person shooter that’s a tie-in to JJ Abrams’ reboot of the popular sci-fi franchise. The events of action take place sometime in between Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek film and the upcoming sequel. Abrams himself worked with the Namco Bandai team to insure the storyline remains in canon with the continuity of the series, and the full cast is on board to voice their characters, including Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto.

One of the unique distinctions of this game is it’s the first in the franchise to allow you to play as both Captain Kirk and Spock simultaneously, via split-screen or networked play. In fact, the demo shown to me relied heavily on Kirk/Spock cooperative play, as the Enterprise is called down to a settlement on New Vulcan (as the old Vulcan was destroyed by Romulus in the previous film) to respond to a distress signal [...]

I’d never played a Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell game until recently when I tired out and loved Splinter Cell: Conviction. The games are renown for their stealth gameplay and your ability to quickly and quietly eliminate enemies by the deadly hands of the one and only Sam Fisher.

Ubisoft was on fire at this year’s E3, bringing a ton of first looks at a lot of exciting games. One of them was the newest title in the Splinter Cell franchise, titled Splinter Cell: Blacklist. [...]

In March of last year, we told you about an incredibly ambitious new project being developed by Syfy and Trion, the game studio behind the highly popular MMORPG Rift. The epic plan was to create both an online video game and an original TV series that were set in the same world, and as the story of the show progresses, writers would incorporate significant moments from the game into the show, allowing players to be a real part of the show they’re watching.

The very idea is awe-inspiring, but it’s also easy to dismiss it as too much to pull off. [...]

This week, Andy, Devindra, Chris, and Techmeme’s Lidija Davis break down this coming year’s latest videogame announcements from the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Later, we discuss last week’s All Things D conference, which was “haunted by the man who isn’t here.”

But first, this week’s headlines… LinkedIn suffers a massive security breach as 6.4 million passwords get leaked, Google sneaks the first video from Project Glass, Facebook Camera launches, Facebook plans to allow under 13-year-olds into their service, Apple to bring Siri to the iPad, and Airtime launches [...]

The Drill Down 236 [ 1:43:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve never had any interest in MMOs. None whatsoever. Not until The Elder Scrolls Online was announced, of course.

But in order to really win my undivided attention, so much would rely on the first look at actual Elder Scrolls Online gameplay and the world they’ve built. That day has now arrived…partially. A video showing a bunch of impressive shots of many different environments from the game were shown at E3, joined by plenty of juicy details about what you can expect. And while I’m still personally skeptical that the game can be as amazing as it sounds like it could be, the environments really do look great and there’s hope that the gameplay will be equally impressive. Fans of The Elder Scrolls and MMOs alike will surely be keeping their eyes on this one. [...]

It was thought that this year’s E3 convention would bring with it our first glimpse of Microsoft and/or Sony’s next-generation gaming console. Surprisingly, no one is saying a word…not even a whisper (which is perfectly fine by me—current systems are at their peak and can still give us a couple good years). Even some of the games we’ve seen look so good that it’s hard not to wonder if they’re being made for the current consoles, or if they’re an early unannounced sneaky peek at the future of gaming.

One such game is Star Wars 1313, which is probably the most likely candidate of them all to ultimately be revealed as a next-gen game. [...]

One of the surprises of this year’s E3 convention is a new game from Ubisoft titled Watch Dogs.

The game has wowed everyone who’s seen the gameplay Ubisoft has shown off, as it takes the immense network we rely on every single day (electricity, phones, etc…) and uses it as a tool for hackers to wreak havoc on the environment around them.

Not much else is known about the game, but as you’ll see in the gameplay demo below, Watch Dogs could present an exciting new open world game with an endless amount of options to do what you need to do. [...]

Anytime a new Resident Evil game is on the table, games will be watching with intent eyes. Knowing this, Capcom was sure to bring lots and lots of good stuff from the latest title in the zombie mega-franchise, titled Resident Evil 6, to show to the masses.

First comes a nice new trailer that shows off both cinematic story and gameplay, and that’s followed by a mountain of gameplay demo footage. Most of the demos we’ve seen run 10-15 minutes, but for RE6, you get so much more. [...]

Just yesterday we shared with you that the new Star Trek game being made by Namco Bandai would have all of the important actors from J.J. Abrams’ 2009 hit reboot of the beloved science-fiction universe returning to voice their characters in the game, and that the enemy you would face in the game would be the feared lizard-skinned Gorn.

If you head to that story there’s a small glance at what the Gorn will look like, but now a much closer and much more terrifying peek at the Gorn has been revealed. [...]

We’ve already seen one brain-’splodin’ first gameplay demonstration for the much anticipated fifth installment in the Hitman franchise, titled Hitman: Absolution. But why stop there? The more the merrier, as they say!

Developer IO Interactive and publisher Square Enix brought with them an excellent new demo from another part of the game, as well as a shiny new cinematic trailer where a group of sexy nuns are out to end Agent 47. [...]

While the motion gaming of the Nintendo Wii has a massive family-friendly appeal, it never much impressed more seasoned gamers who wanted less cartoony party games to play. The creation of Microsoft’s Kinect and PlayStation’s Move have opened doors to more substantial motion gaming options, but the arrival of Nintendo’s Wii U looks to be hoping to lure some of those gamers their way with the announcement of ZombiU.

Whether the game ends up being a fun zombie game or not remains to be seen, but, in the very least, it does have some cool first peeks. [...]

When the story of Marcus Fenix, Dom, Cole Train, Baird, and the rest of the COGS ended with trilogy-maker Gears of War 3, it was generally known that more games would eventually be made. The question was how long down the road would Epic Games wait to make another, and where would they go in the story with the threat Locust and Lambent threats taken care of, and their popular lead character, Fenix (voiced by John DiMaggio of Bender from Futurama fame), seemingly out of the picture.

The answers? Well, as it turns out, Epic didn’t want to wait long. A new installment in the series has been announced, titled Gears of War: Judgment, that will cover the rest of the questions by being a prequel. [...]

The mighty Kratos is back again, this time for a prequel story titled God of War: Ascension.

Sony brought plenty of exciting treats to show off for the game, starting with a nice gameplay demo and followed by the reveal of the first ever God of War multiplayer gameplay.

Taking place only six months after he was tricked by the god Ares into murdering his wife and child, Kratos is angrier than ever and seeking vengeance. [...]