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FROM MTV NEWS: After a huge showing at E3, "The Beatles: Rock Band" came to MTV's headquarters in Times Square, letting employees check out the hotly anticipated rhythm game first-hand. John Drake, a spokesman for Harmonix (the developer behind "Rock Band") was on-hand to share the goods on the game.

" 'The Beatles: Rock Band' has 45 songs from the Beatles catalog and lets you enjoy all the great 'Rock Band' gameplay you've come to love from 'Rock Band' and 'Rock Band 2,' with the great songs of the Beatles," Drake said. "We've also added three-part vocal harmony and some really, really amazing visuals."

Click here to read the rest of the article!

Tags harmonix, the beatles: rock band

FROM MTV NEWS: Even though "Halo 3" culminated the story of Master Chief, the series' cyborg protagonist, Microsoft isn't about to let the "Halo" franchise slip into obscurity. September will see the release of "Halo 3: ODST", a spinoff which tells the story of the everyday soldiers' fight to prevent Earth from falling into the hands of nasty alien forces.

"Halo 3: ODST" (which stands for Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) is developed by Bungie, the same house that spawned the "Halo" franchise. The game is set prior to the events of "Halo 3," in the city of New Mombasa, which is being invaded a superior alien race known as the Covenant. Master Chief is on the other side of the galaxy, so it's up to the grunts to make the difference in the battle.

Read the rest of the story at MTV News!

Tags bungie, halo 3: odst

Chair Entertainment announced in early 2008 that they had nabbed the rights to make "Ender's Game" games, which is all fine and dandy and fits nicely with their previous multiplayer-centric game, "Undertow". Imagine my surprise, then, when they showed up at E3 with Epic Games to reveal that a completely different Orson Scott Card-based game had been developed and, even more surprising, that it's looking great. Thanks to some hands-on time, "Shadow Complex" has jumped to the top of my most anticipated downloadable games list.

What It's Doing Right
Inspired by Greatness
"Shadow Complex" is inspired by "Metroid" and "Castlevania". They even said it right there in the Microsoft press conference. It's a 2.5D game that focuses on exploration, but features action to break up the gameplay. You'll start with nothing but the clothes on your back and a flashlight, but as you progress deeper into a mysterious underground facility, you'll gain upgrades which will allow you to access more locations.

They're really not even trying to hide the similarities to its predecessors. Double jumps, guns that shoot platforms which you can then walk on, etc. Hell, the map is straight-up ripped from the square-based map of "Super Metroid"! It's not subtle, but I'm fine with that, those were great games.

Read more...

Tags chair entertainment, epic games, shadow complex

Firemint is one of the top selling iPhone developers on the App Store, thanks to a simple little game called FlightControl. It's only a dollar, features cartoon-style graphics and pretty basic (but fiendishly addictive) gameplay. It's light years away from their latest title, Real Racing. Despite the painfully generic title, the game is more detailed and fully-featured as any other iPhone racing game before it.

At heart it's a racing sim in the style of "Forza" or "Gran Turismo", with an extraordinary level of depth and variety. Here are the pertinent stats that people tend to care about:
-36 cars (split across hatchbacks, sedans and muscle cars)
-12 tracks
-6 car races
-Touch and accelerometer controls

There's a lot more going on here, but that's the top level.
Read more...

Tags firemint, racing, real racing

Even though Guillermo del Toro is a huge gamer (see previous post), you're not going to be seeing a new "Hobbit" game to tie-in with the upcoming movie from del Toro and Peter Jackson. At least, not at launch. How come?

"It's too ambitious to try and tackle that along with 'The Hobbit'. We have such tight release dates."

Wow, not rushing out a terrible movie-franchise game to coincide with a movie release? We've officially entered Bizarro World. Del Toro goes on to talk about what he'd like to see. You can check out the rest of the clip below, where the director talks about what he would expect, in terms of scope, from a "Hobbit" game.

Tags guillermo del toro, the hobbit

In case you didn't already know, Director Guillermo Del Toro (of "Hellboy", "Pan's Labyrinth" and the upcoming "Hobbit" movie) is a huge gamer. And not one of those "Hollywood" gamers that plays "Madden" and "Halo" and tries to pass it off as being on the inside. No, this guy is all up in "Flower" and "Shadow of the Colossus", describing the former, "Like Haiku Poetry." MTV's Movies Editor, Josh Horowitz, had a sit-down with Del Toro, and you can watch him fly his nerd flag here.

There's something about Del Toro's accent that makes him soothing and easy to listen to. Could he be Mexico's answer to Peter Molyneux? Very possible!

Tags call of duty: world at war, flower, grand theft auto, guillermo del toro, shadow of the colossus

While there's no official word (trust me, they're in the same building as me, I'd know), Billy Joe, the lead singer of Green Day, broke the news on Kevin and Bean's Breakfast radio show on KROQ 106.7 FM, that they're collaborating for a "Rock Band" game.

It would certainly explain the lack of playable Green Day songs in either "Rock Band" or "Guitar Hero."

Billy Joe had this to say about the game's potential release date:

"I'm not sure...soon. Like I think not this week, but this year soon...by the end of this year."

Hmm...vague. We'll be checking in with Harmonix to see if they've got some more specifics.

(via Kotaku)

Tags harmonix

We've been reporting live from the show floor at E3 all, week, and if you'd like to play catch-up, you can get all our E3 news stories right here.

If you're tight on time, though, why not fit in a week's worth of gaming insanity into a bite-sized video? It's called being productive!

Oh, it's also my very first on-air piece for MTV, so it's got that going for it, too!

See ya next year, E3!

Tags e3

BioWare games are known for some pretty risque moments, letting you bed multiple characters throughout your adventure. So how are they handling sex in The Old Republic? We went right to the source.

Sorry, no hot twiliek action.

Tags e3, star wars: the old republic

At the end of our interview with Cammie Dunaway of Nintendo, we asked what games she was looking forward to that WEREN'T coming out on a Nintendo platform. Her answer may surprise you! (Well, not really, I kinda said it right there in the headline).

And you thought she was just into puppies and knitting!

Tags e3