e3 posts

Didn't manage to get a key in our APB Key to the City contest, or still waiting for yours to arrive? This preview might interest you. One of the game's producers from Realtime Worlds talks about their customization options and just how you can become a celebrity in the game world. He also talks about the status of Enforcers within the game world and just how you can team up with your buddies. While nothing said is new to players of the beta, it's still interesting for those that have not got their mitts on the game yet.

Valve's email last week that the company was prepping for some some of big "surprise" at E3 2010 sparked a ton of rumors, speculation and hope about all sorts of things. Was Valve going to show off Source Engine 3? Would they be announcing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or perhaps Half-Life 3 itself? Or maybe it has something to do with the mysterious project that's being headed up by the main developer of Defense of the Ancients?

As it turns out it's none of these things. Valve's email today that announced a delay in the release of Portal 2 from fall 2010 to sometime in 2011 also confirmed that the E3 2010 surprise is related to ... Portal 2. However we just hope that the "surprise" is going to be worth all of the head banging we have been doing trying to figure it out.

[Via email press release]

Today we are exactly one week away before the doors of the Los Angeles Convention Center opens its doors and the E3 2010 exhibit hall opens to its estimated 40,000 + attendees. This week we are giving you a brief look at what games we are most anxious to see and perhaps get our hands-on at the annual trade event.

On Monday we covered the massive amount of first person shooters that are planned to be at the show. But there are a number of more conventional action games that we want to check out too. After the jump you can look at our list for yourself. One action game we were expecting to show up on this list, Max Payne 3, won't be on display at E3 as publisher Rockstar Games has decided to bypass the show this year.

In just one week, the Big Download posse will be in Los Angeles for E3 2010, the biggest single event in the game industry. While many in said industry have called E3 an event that's mostly about console games, that's simply not the case, especially this year as there will be a number of major PC exclusive titles at E3 as well as games that will be best played on a PC system.

This week we will give you our picks for the games that we are most anxious to check out at the show. That doesn't mean we have pre-judged these games. These are just the titles that we most want to see at the show. Also the games we are about to post are confirmed as being displayed at E3 2010. We are not posting about rumored games (although if Half-Life 2 Episode 3/Half-Life 3 shows up we will be very happy).

So let's get started with today's installment as we look at the already crowded list of first person shooters that are confirmed for E3 2010.

After two years as a small media only event, E3 came back with a roar in 2009 as a full fledged trade show event and all indications are that 2010's E3 later in June will be even bigger. But there's another huge event just on the horizon: Gamescom in Cologne Germany in late August. It debuted in 2009 with over 200,000 attendees.

With two huge events happening so close together, a number of game publishers are spending lots of money to attend both E3 and Gamescom. But will they continue to do so? Computer and Video Games chatted with Namco Bandai VP Olivier Comte who stated that if E3 truly returns to its heights of four years ago, "the industry will have to choose between E3 and GamesCom, because two events within three months that cost a lot of money for all of the publishers will be too much." Comte seems to give the advantage to E3 because it's held in the US.

There will certainly be a number of major new game announcements during E3 2010 in June and one of them might be a new game in The Creative Assembly's Total War RTS series. Voodoo Extreme reports via an anonymous source that publisher Sega will indeed make such an announcement during the show.

The article claims that the new game will take a "back to basics" approach in terms of its weapons but there are no other details on the new title. Big Download contacted Sega's PR for comment and the response we got back was that the publisher " ... can't confirm a new TW game for E3."

3D! 3D! 3D! If you are tired of hearing about movies and games going 3D then you might want to avoid Electronic Arts at E3 2010 in June. As part of their conference call to investors today following the release of their latest financial reports, EA's Chief Operating Officer John Schappert stated that an EA game will have a 3D showing during E3.

There's no word yet on what game will be getting the treatment with Schappert saying only that it will be a "marquee title" IGN reports that the game in question will be fully revealed sometime next week.

Hard to believe but we are just a month and a half away from the official start of E3 2010. With the dates of the show getting closer and closer, publishers are starting to announced just what games they will be showing at this year's expo. One of them is Paradox Interactive who will be bringing four upcoming titles to the event.

Among the games they will be showing is the 19th century historical strategy game Victoria 2, the strategy-sim title Commander: Conquest of the Americas, the RTS game Lionheart: Kings' Crusade and the simulation title Ship Simulator Extremes. Of course it stands to reason that the publisher might have some surprise games and announcements they are waiting to spring on us when E3 starts.

There are now quite a few competitions dedicated to promoting and rewarding indie games. One of the more established ones is IndieCade. Today the event's organizers announced they are taking submissions for their 2010 edition which will be held October 8-10 in various locations in Culver City, California.

In addition to showing off games, IndieCade also offers workshops and panels dedicated to indie gaming as well as awards for the finalists selected to be displayed at the show. The deadline for submissions is June 1. A IndieCade 2010 preview will be held during this year's E3 event in mid-June.

We are now less than five months away from what is arguably the single biggest week in the game industry; the 2010 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 as it is usually known. The expo's web site has now gone live for its 2010 version with registration now available for exhibitors, media and attendees to sign up to attend the show which will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 15-17.

The web site also shows the expo's current list of exhibitors and at the moment there are a few major publishers that are not on the list. The biggest no show is Take Two Interactive, home of the 2K Games and Rockstar Games brand. We've emailed Take Two to see if they have any plans to attend this year's event. Other current major no-shows include Namco Bandai, Southpeak and NCsoft. It also appears that Blizzard won't be joining its publishing partner Activision at E3 again (they bypassed last year's show) Again this list is still in the early stages and its possible that there will be additions made. It's also possible that companies not on the list will be in the LA area during E3 hosting off-site press events.

Update: Take Two has responded to our email request with their spokesperson telling us, " . . . we are planning on taking part as usual at this year's E3."