In an El33tonline-attended gamescom presentation for Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma, the game’s producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi was present to take us through the fantasy action RPG’s many features and provide a lot more clarity on what the game really is, as well as showcase what kind of gameplay we can expect while explaining why ‘Pawns’ are so important and intriguing.

Continue reading El33tonline’s preview of Dragon’s Dogma.

After the legendary Ken Rolston subversively berated videogame marketers and reviewers for the clichés they use in their descriptions of games during an awesome presentation at EA’s press conference ahead of gamescom this year, El33tonline had the chance to attend a demo for Rolston’s latest masterwork, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

We were taken through the demonstration by lead designer Ian Frazier, as well as Big Huge Games studio general manager Sean Dunn, and while we were told that it was difficult to reveal everything that’s in the game in only 30 minutes, together the pair did a great job of introducing us to the massive open-world RPG stylings of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

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Tom’s great article on the PS Vita inspired me to write a bit about my impressions of the machine, and even though he gave me a huge amount of questions to ask about the Vita when I went to Gamescom, there wasn’t anyone there who could really answer them since there weren’t any hardware guys to talk to. Nevertheless, I can talk about what the Vita feels like in your hands.

Continue reading El33tonline’s editorial, PS Vita Hands-on Impressions.

If you enjoyed Tekken Tag Tournament back in the day, you’ll probably know that Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is in development after a very, very long time. You’ll probably also know that it seems like it’s still going to a take a while to be released. Well, Namco Bandai has something coming soon that might just be able to slake your Tag thirst in the meantime: Tekken Hybrid.

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Lightbox Interactive’s Dylan Jobe gave us a demo of the latest build of Starhawk at gamescom a few weeks ago, and it looks like a lot of fun!

Starhawk is not just ‘Warhawk in space.’ It’s the same core experience of online, vehicle-based action, but a bunch of new elements have been added. For one thing, there is a solo campaign which Jobe assures us is ‘compelling.’ The solo campaign will be a set of singleplayer missions using the game’s battle engine, and the story takes place in the distant corners of the galaxy where miners are extracting rift energy in similar conditions to the gold rush of the Wild West. Jobe calls it a “Space Western” universe.

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Start the Party was one of the Move’s launch games, and it can be a lot of fun in a party setting. Start the Party: Save the World continues with the same formula, but includes 20 totally new games as well as the ability to interfere with the current player with a DualShock controller, adding to the interaction. The developers have also increased the use of augmented reality in the mini-games in some clever ways.

Continue reading El33tonline’s preview of Start the Party: Save the World.

At Gamescom I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation by Robin Hunicke from thatgamecompany where she talked through Journey’s journey from idea to fruition. This post outlines that journey. For more background information on what journey is, check out our extensive coverage of the title, including our hands-on preview and preview.

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Gamescom was especially gruelling this year and truly earned its title as ‘the largest videogame event in the world.’

With 275 000 visitors (and thousands more turned away due to capacity crowds), gamesom 2011 will go down in history as the flashiest and most exciting games expo ever… until next year, that is.

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Stepping into the gamescom demo room for RAGE, I didn’t expect to see id Software’s Tim Willits greeting journalists at the door, and I certainly didn’t expect to discuss anything to do with South Africa, either.

Continue reading El33tonline’s hands-on preview of RAGE.

The LittleBigPlanet Move Pack is an upcoming set of downloadable content for LittleBigPlanet that is the single-biggest DLC made for LittleBigPlanet so far, and the developers from Media Molecule were on hand at gamescom to show us what it’s all about.

Continue reading El33tonline’s hands-on preview of LittleBigPlanet 2: Move Pack.

While at gamescom this year we managed to attend a UFC Undisputed 3 demonstration and get some hands-on time with the game to see what it’s all about. Of course, it’s all about UFC fighting, but… you know what I mean.

The big change in Undisputed 3 is the addition of an ‘amateur’ control scheme, devised to make the game more accessible, while the previous control scheme is now called ‘pro.’ Let me describe them both for those not familiar with the series.

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Escape Plan is a newly announced game for the PlayStation Vita by the team that created Fat Princess. Deborah Mars from Sony Santa Monica and Chris Millar from developer Fun Bits where there to explain the game to us.

Two things struck me immediately as I watched the trailer for Escape Plan: the graphic style and the characters. The graphics are all black and white with a slightly grainy look, like a noir film. The characters, meanwhile are made from plastic and are filled with air like blow-up toys. One is named Laarg - he’s the big guy - and the other is named Lil - he’s thin as a stick. They’re endearing characters in their design and movements, so combined with the graphic style the game comes across as immediately compelling. That’s without even knowing what it’s about or how you play it.

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The upcoming Ratchet & Clank follows the recent trend of local four-player same-screen games and brings that kind of gameplay to the Ratchet & Clank franchise, with what looks to be great effect. At a preview last week at gamescom we got to see the latest build.

Continue reading El33tonline’s preview of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One.

James Stevenson and Tom Pickett from Insomniac presented Resistance 3 to us at gamescom, and the singleplayer story mode is looking very interesting. The bit they showed us was part of Chapter 8: The Plan, and it followed Jo Capelli as he searches for the remains of an aircraft that he saw crashing. Capelli meets some people living in St. Louis, a resistance group known as the Remnants led by a man by the name of ‘Charlie,’ who takes Capelli back with him to their hideout.

Adding a twist to this chapter, Capelli’s friend and scientist, Malakov, is in dire need of penicillin, and it turns out this ‘Remnant’ group that he’s met up with has some, so in return for the medicine that will save his friend’s life, Capelli agrees to help the Remnants with a dangerous mission to take out a Chimeran dropship to get their hands on a power core.

Continue reading El33tonline’s preview of Resistance 3.

Kinect Sports: Season 2 is the follow-up to Kinect Sports, the popular collection of sports-themed mini-games that make use of the Kinect. So popular in fact that Kinect Sports is the number one best-selling Kinect game with over three million copies sold to date.

Kinect Sports: Season 2 will feature six different team-based and individual sports: skiing, golf, darts, tennis, baseball and American football. The game will also include new features such as in-game voice control, enhanced motion tracking and Challenge Play Mode.

Continue reading El33tonline’s hands-on preview of Kinect Sports: Season 2.