If you didn’t watch the 2010 Video Game Awards you missed some cool stuff. But that’s okay because the important stuff is all here. And, as always, my focus is on PS3, but there are some other bits worth noting as well.

The first major announcement worth reporting: Bethesda has been hard at work on the latest piece of Elder Scrolls lore. A direct sequel to 2006’s Oblivion, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is sheduled for November 11, 2011.

When BioWare said they had a major announcement for VGAs no one ever thought it would be anything other than Mass Effect 3. And no one was wrong. But that doesn’t mean the announcement is underwhelming in any way, because the Reapers have found Earth. The latest installment in what is quickly becoming one of the most expansive sci-fi tales of the video game generation is coming straight to Earth and Shepard better get here quickly.

Sony had a big announcement with its flagship FPS, Resistance. The surprise wasn’t that Resistance 3 is coming, we’ve known that for a while. But they have given it a street date, September 6, 2011. Mark that one on your calendars. Resistance is no Halo, but if you’re on PS3 it’s one of the best FPS around.

Activision has also been doing some pre-VGA announcement hype, which turned out to be the sequel to last year’s open world title, Prototype. The “Murder your maker” noise Activision was making seems to hint at the plot of Prototype 2. It looks like your new character is out to kill the protagonist from the first game. I think. I haven’t actually played Prototype yet so a lot of the trailer and announcement didn’t make much sense.

Yet another pre-show hyped announcement was Guillermo del Toro’s teaming with THQ and Volition. Del Toro is an amazing filmmaker and his unique visual style could be a great fit in the video game industry. But the announcement was not amazing in any way. Yes, he’s involved in the making of a game, Insane. It’s due in September 2013! It was also described as being “new terror,” whatever the hell that means.

SSX: Deadly Descents has been announced. Is there anything more to say about it? Not really. SSX used to be awesome before they robbed it of color and excitement. The newest attempt to revive the franchise looks even more bland than the last one. Shame, really. These used to be great.

A new trailer was released for one of the most anticipated titles of 2011, Portal 2. Mainly the trailer shows more of the robotic pair which are central to the co-op portion of the game. If nothing else, those two robots are adorable.

The next big announcement is November 1, 2011. What happens then? That’s the day we get more Nathan Drake. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception looks to continue the same great gameplay we’ve had for the previous two iterations. This time, the adventure hits the desert.

I mentioned a new Batman: Arkham City trailer in the quick hits last week. Turns out that was the short version. The long version shows more Batman vs. bad guy badassery and some really twisted stuff with Hugo Strange. Oh yeah, and the city is monstrous – something like five times larger than the Asylum from the first game.

I probably missed a few so feel free to expand in the comments. My winners recap will also be up soon.

I was lucky enough to get a review copy of Qlione Evolve on the Playstation 3. Brought to us by Sony Online Entertainment and developer Rockin’ Android. Qlione Evolve is actually two games in one. Included in this bundle is Qlione 2 along with the original Qlione. The premise of the games is pretty simple. You are a lone microbe whose purpose is to kill the other microbes using bombs. Your other task is to eat “protein orbs” which cause you to evolve into a more powerful microbe. This game feels like it is a mixture of two other games that are also available on the PSN, “Flow” and “Super Stardust HD.”

The game play takes a little bit to get used to, but its pretty simple once you get the hang of it. As the microbe you move around the level using spread bombs and compressed traps, or explosion and vacuum bombs in Qlione 2.  You use these to cause a wave attack that does damages the enemy microbes.

Both games are comprised of 8 levels, each with a boss at the end. Some of the bosses are rediculously hard, but there is a great sense of accomplishment when you defeat them.

Its really easy to get sucked in and lose track of time while playing this game. Now is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.  Its got a cool electronica soundtrack, but if the soundtrack gets old you can use a custom soundtrack with the music you have saved to your PS3’s hard drive.

All in all I would recommend checking this game out. At $6.99 I think this game is totally worth it!

Time now for small chunks of news-worthy items in the gaming industry.

First, there’s a good chance you don’t even remember NEOGEO. If you do, this is probably good news for you. If you don’t, you wouldn’t understand it if I tried to explain. You’ll now have a chance to play some of those classics again as they make their way to PSN starting December 21st. Online or local multiplayer will be incorporated where it makes sense. The initial ten games will be Alpha Mission II, Art of Fighting, Baseball Stars Professional, Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters ’94, League Bowling, Magician Lord, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown, and Super Sidekicks.

Next, as if you don’t have enough reasons to be excited about the reboot of Mortal Kombat, the console-exclusive character announcements have begun. I have no doubt there will be a similar entry from XBOX 360, but for now I have the PS3 news. Kratos of God of War fame will be a playable character complete with his own moves, arena, and (most importantly) Fatalities. This should be great, but am I the only one who thinks they should spell it “Cratos” just to mess with people?

Finally, and really the biggest tidbit, a teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham City is making the rounds. You won’t see much (looks like a squad-based stealth game at first), but it is Batman kicking ass in pouring rain and that should bring a smile to your face. Watch it.

BigCheezHead is featured in this clip

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How’s this for a big week:

TRON: Evolution Collector’s Edition
and

SBK X

That is all. Really. Two games. And that’s also pretty much it for the year. Which, being Tron, might be enough for you. I’m considering this a good time to catch up on all the games I’ve been missing.

I’ve found another batch of rumors and tidbits if you’re into geek gaming. As always, it’s a mixed bag of good, bad and meh.

First up, Sega’s video game based on the upcoming Thor film will feature the voices of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston, Thor and Loki respectively. This doesn’t mean it will be good. After all, it’s a Sega movie game. It just means it will have good voicework in the midst of the suckitude.

This is sort of old news at this point but some of you might need reminding. Remember Marvel Ultimate Alliance? Remember that DLC that gave you some sim missions and characters like Magneto and Cable? Well, there is something wrong with the licensing for the DLC which means they have to stop selling it. It will be pulled from the usual sources (XBox marketplace, PSN Store, etc.) on January 1st. It’s about $10 and probably worth it if you’re still playing the game. Get it soon or not at all.

Most of you know that there is a downloadable, episodic Back to the Future game coming soon. But did you know Christopher Lloyd is voicing Doc Brown? And did you know the first trailer is out.

Finally, you should know about the upcoming Marvel Pinball game for PSN (Dec. 14th, $9.99). They’ve released new screenshots of the Wolverine table and it looks pretty good. Now I just have to decide if virtual pinball on Playstation is actually going to be fun.

Good news Ghostheads, even with Atari having trouble financially, they are pushing out a sequel to Ghostbusters: The Video Game. That’s the good news. The bad news, so far none of the original ‘busters are comin’ back to provide their voices. It doesn’t sound as though the original four opted out. It seems like Atari is going a different (less time consuming and costly) direction. The game will revolve around the rookie from the last game, and most likely his franchise.

More good news, it’s going to be a DLC game for Xbox, PS3 as well as PC download. Because of this, I think the community will be more forgiving of the game. Sanctum of Slime will be a top down co-op ala Gauntlet Legends. This will be playable over the internet or locally. Giant bosses requiring team work are promised.

Personally I’m hoping for more of the same with the concept. Shoot, bust and trap. But I’d imagine it’ll be more along the lines of the classic arcade game. Just shoot the ghosts until they blow up, rinse and repeat. Without Aykroyd, Murray, Ramis and Hudson this game will be lacking the spark that Ghostbusters: The Video Game had. The comedy, scares and fun will probably be watered down to repetitive fun. Which is fine since its DLC. This will be hitting Spring next year.

Thanks to Game Hunters for the scoop.

Recently, I was invited as a member of BigShinyRobot to try the closed beta for the upcoming MMORPG, DC Universe Online. I’ve been enjoying it for about a week, but have been under a non-disclosure agreement. That’s been lifted today, so I am happy to share my impressions with all of you!

The bottom line is , I really like it, there are a few things that I hope are improved upon though. Some parts of character creation are kind of dicey. For instance, the hair options are very cluttered because hair and facial hair aren’t separate options. Another thing I would like is if you could actually use the established DC hero emblems, but from the forums it looks like those might be available as in game rewards. The naming conventions are kind of odd as well. Certain words don’t seem to be usable, which is the norm for vulgar or otherwise offensive words, but I actually didn’t seem to be able to use “bot”. My hero was going to be Shaz-Bot, but I had
to settle for Shazmotron, mashing my name along with Swank’s. On the other hand, when I finally made myself a villain, the system let me use Martian Deathhunter, so I don’t why they’d block some words and not others, especially ones so derivative.

One of the aspects of character creation I was looking forward to most was the ‘Inspired By’ system. If you want to emulate, or be inspired by a hero, you have that option. It gives you a similar power set and look to the hero or villain you choose for inspiration.  The designs they give you are pretty generic and the number of characters you can be ‘inspired by’ was lacking. With Shaz-bot, I based the design on Captain Marvel. I had to do all of the heavy lifting as it were myself though, because Cap wasn’t one of the heroes you could be inspired by. I was also a bit surprised that there aren’t any lightning-based powers, as that is kind of a superhero MMORPG staple.  I compromised and made my character shoot mystical energy instead. When I made the Martian Deathhunter on the other hand, I totally got to ape the Martian Manhunter’s look and power set. I just tweaked things a bit to make me look a bit more ‘evil’.

My character, before I added a cape and before I had to change my name.

Outside of character creation, my overall experience was positive. The actual gameplay is a nice mesh of a light action game and a traditional MMORPG. You have to take an active part in the battle, rather than just hitting a button and auto attacking.  This makes the fighting fun rather than tedious and is a great way to go about it. Comparing it to another hero MMORPG, It’s kind of a polar opposite from Champions Online, where the character creation is ridiculously robust, but the actual gameplay is lacking. Another thing I was wondering about is how the game’s interface would work, being on both PC and PlayStation 3. I am happy to say playing this game with a gamepad is smooth as silk. It’s obvious that the game was built to be played with one rather than as an afterthought. Now, I am a dyed in the wool DC fan, so I can’t say this without being biased, but if you let yourself, you can totally get caught up in the role playing aspect. I felt like I was a part of the DC Universe. I even came up with a backstory in my mind for both of the characters I’m playing.

The missions are really awesome. It seems the missions you are assigned are based on the origin you pick for yourself. As Shazmotron, I was picked a magic-based origin, so my missions revolved around fighting Faust for the first main story, and then a Trigon possessed Raven for the second. There are plenty more, I am sure, but for the beta I was level at 9. I haven’t progressed far enough to talk too much about the villain missions yet, but if they measure up to the hero missions, no matter what you decide to do in game, you’re bound to find something you enjoy.

When it comes to in-game environments, I started in Metropolis, but I didn’t really explore it much, I was mainly confined to Chinatown because of the way my missions went. I have yet travel around the city, but I know familiar areas like Suicide Slum. When I got Shazmotron to level 9, I added a new flight power that lets my move a lot faster and that makes exploring much more fun, and to do that, I traveled to Gotham. Gotham City is awesome. I went to the East End, found the  Bat-Signal, which really shines onto a far away cloud which was sweet. I found Arkham Asylum which was really cool too, I couldn’t find Wayne Manor, but I guess that’s supposed to be on the outskirts and I couldn’t leave the city in that way. There were invisible walls, which you would think would be disappointing, but the city is large enough that you won’t encounter any unless you’re deliberately exploring.

Speaking of large areas, the JLA watchtower is MASSIVE. There are 4 wings to it and they are quite extensive. There are familiar DCU Heroes all over it, and reminds me more of the JLU watchtower from the show rather than the original Morrison one. The villains get a Legion of Doom headquarters, but I haven’t been to it yet. In the attached gallery you can see screenshots of every hero I could find. I of course had to find Captain Marvel to prove to myself he was indeed even in the game, and he actually gets a cut scene in the Faust story.

Speaking of cutscenes, they are really something special. They aren’t CGI like the opening movie, but in my opinion, they are even better. It’s like an idealized version of a motion comic. They are very limited animation-wise, but they are so vivid and vibrant that they just kind of pop out at you. I assume it’s all Jim Lee art, but I can’t really tell as I am not terribly familiar with his DC work outside of the Batman side of things. And I certainly wouldn’t want to slight any of the fine people who’ve worked on this game.

I’ll admit that I didn’t play terribly much of the multiplayer content, but it’s a testament to the game that I didn’t really miss it all that much. What I did play very still very satisfying. I was able to play a 4 vs. 4 player vs. player arena. In the arenas, you can play as established DC characters. This arena we were limited to using Robin and Harley Quinn. It was very fast paced and fun, so much so, that I was too focused to actually take any screenshots of it! Later on, I was on a team task force type of multiplayer where we had a vast plain to fight back Brainiac’s opposing forces. It was a timed event, and I only got in at the tail end of it, but it was still very appealing. You have to use squad tactics, and communicate with your teammates, otherwise you’ll be lost! I look forward to more multiplayer gameplay once I dive back into the game.

So as not to gush too much, one thing I wanted to mention was the voice acting in the game. If you somehow find yourself playing the beta, I implore you not to be turned off by the voices. The game is in an early enough stage that the final voice work is not complete, and therefore placeholder voices are used, because the game does have rather extensive voice overs. This is not a knock on the game in any way, just an observation on the beta process.

All in all, when I judge a video game, there are obvious things that I look for, but above all it has to be fun. Trust me when I say: This game is very fun to play. Although I’ve been hyped for it since it was announced, I was kind of leery about it, because I didn’t want to play another “me too” MMORPG. After playing the beta for a week, those fears are completely gone. I decided right then and there to pre-order it. The hardest part was picking which store to go to, because every retailer has a different in game item![nggallery id=46]

The holiday shopping season is upon us. If you survived Black Friday you may be wondering what’s still to come to PS3 this year. Whether for yourself or as a gift, you pretty much want something that’s already out. With few exceptions, the major titles have been released. Still, there are two stragglers coming in at $10 below the normal MSRP. Is that good? Or is it a bad sign?

11/29
Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos – Compatible with MoveThey’ll make a video game out of anything. And the existence of this game proves it. I certainly don’t want to be catching crabs on Christmas Day. There could be a solid game here if anyone wants to try it. I won’t. But hey, it’s MOVE compatible!

11/30
Nail’dI’ve actually heard good press about this one. If you’re an ATV racing game addict it’s probably been a while and this might scratch the itch. If you’re a casual fan of the genre you can probably find something used that’s cheaper and still very fun.

Let’s face it, no one’s reading this. You’re all standing in line for GT5 or lost somewhere in a parking lot waiting for stores to open so you can destroy one another over fake deals. But I’m writing it anyway.

11/22/10
Red Dead Redemption: Undead NightmareIf you haven’t played Red Dead Redemption you’ve missed out on one of the best games of 2010. If you’re a cheap bastard like me you probably borrowed it or got it from Gamefly – which means you didn’t buy the DLC. It just figures that right after I sent it back they announced the zombie expansion for the game. I would have actually bought DLC for a rented game had I known. Thankfully, Rockstar has gone the Episodes from Liberty City route and is releasing the DLC on a standalone disc. Guess what just hit my GameQ.

11/23/10
Majin And The Forsaken KingdomThis game tried to trick me and I’m holding a grudge. When I saw the cover art and heard it was coming soon I thought it was The Last Guardian, the third game from Team ICO (ICO and Shadow of the Colossus). I was excited. Then I realized it was the cheap ($40) knockoff version. Still looks like it might be good, so I may play it, but I really wish it was The Last Guardian (scheduled for late 2011).

SplatterhouseLooking for some old school gore-splashing? This update to a classic arcade game from the 16-bit era should be an entertaining romp – just don’t expect a work of fine art.

Monster Jam 3: Path of Destruction with Grave Digger Steering Wheel PeripheralAm I the only one that’s hesitant to think a $40 title that includes a peripheral is a good idea? It’s a good thing it’s a niche racer too, because we all know what racing fans have been bonering for since years before the PS3 was even released. And that boner is about to pop for…

11/24/10
Gran Turismo 5If you haven’t at least heard of GT5 you are seriously reading the wrong article. I honestly remember reading about this game in magazines when it was going to come out for PS2 but suffered so many delays the devs decided to make it for the new system when PS3 was announced. At the time it was supposed to be a launch title. FOUR years later, and several more delays, it’s finally going to be here just in time for November’s big holiday, Black Friday. I have no doubt it’s going to be the biggest, craziest racing game to date, but can it survive nearly ten years of hype? Starcraft II released to mixed results after the ten year gap. Will this do any better?