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FROM MTV NEWS: Wednesday night on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," Microsoft's Kudo Tsunoda demonstrated "Project Natal." Expected to launch in 2010, "Project Natal" features a camera that hooks up to your Xbox 360, letting you play games just by moving your body — no controller needed.

Tsunoda began the demonstration with "Ricochet," a game that is almost like virtual handball. A 3-D representation of yourself will appear onscreen, and by swinging your arms and legs in the air, you can bat back a ball that breaks digital blocks at the end of a hallway.

Continue reading about "Project Natal" on Jimmy Fallon here.

Tags project natal

"Little Wheel" is a Flash adventure game in the style of Space Quest or Monkey Island. It's only 20 minutes long, but in that time it manages to craft a world that I want to get to know a lot better. Here's the lowdown:

Planet populated by robots suddenly loses power to its main generator and everyone/thing shuts down. 10,000 years later, a handy lighting bolt rouses a lone one-legged robot back to life, and it's up to him to start the generator back up and wake the entire planet up. It seems more epic than it plays out (again, it's only 20 minutes long), but "Little Wheel" leaves quite an impression in that short time.
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Tags little wheel

A few weeks back, John Carmack revealed that he's been working on a port of the classic "DOOM" for iPhone. Since he already released an excellent port of "Wolfenstein 3D" for the platform, I was pretty pumped about the classic demon-ridden shooter getting the same treatment.

While that game is still in the works, it looks like it's not the only iPhone "DOOM" we'll be seeing in the near future. "DOOM Resurrection" is a completely new game which appears to take inspiration from the story and visuals of "DOOM 3." Note the graphics for the Imp above, as well as the assault rifle. Lower rez, sure, but "DOOM 3” nonetheless.
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Tags doom, doom resurrection, id software

Since everyone gets all up in arms whenever a new "Final Fantasy" is announced, I figured I would collect all the screens in one place for easy digestion and judgement. So here, ya go, "Final Fantasy XIV" screenshots. Do with them what you will!

A better question, though, is when we'll actually see in-game screenshots. Knowing "Final Fantasy," check back in 2011.

Tags final fantasy, final fantasy xiv, square enix

Kudo Tsunoda is Microsoft man-in-charge behind E3-favorite "Project Natal" and apparently he's not finished with his stage time. He'll be appearing on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" tonight, taking his turn after John Krasinski ("The Office") and Stephen Moyer ("True Blood").

Fallon is a self-professed gaming nerd and hopes to bring a little more mainstream attention to our beloved pastime. In an interview with Kotaku, he explained that he's planning on pumping up big game releases the same way movies are promoted, and hopes to land a joint interview with Jack Black and Tim Schafer at the release of "Brutal Legend."

"Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" airs at 12:35am. Since Kudo is the last interview, you may have to stay up past 1. Or, ya know, wait til it's on Hulu.

Tags kudo tsunoda, project natal

According to G4's The Feed, John Pleasants, the chief operating officer at EA, has seen the progress "Battlefield 3" has been making at the DICE studios in Sweden. That's funny, we didn't even know the game existed!

Said Pleasants, "I've had the luxury of looking at 'Battlefield 3' over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product."

He goes on to say that the game is not coming out this year (Phew, we're already up to our ears in "Battlefield" with "Heroes," "1943" and "Bad Company 2"!), but that it's looking rather good.

It's kinda quaint that the COO of EA (sorta a big deal) would feel like he had the luxury of seeing one of the hojillion or so games under the EA brand, but I guess he's just easily excited. Or a good salesman.

Tags battlefield, battlefield 3, dice, ea

I first saw "Splinter Cell: Conviction" in 2007. Back then it was a pretty radical departure for the franchise, placing super spy Sam Fisher out in the open, requiring him to use crowds and chaos to take control of a situation. If that sounds familiar, you probably played "Assassins Creed," and you probably understand why "Splinter Cell: Conviction" left the public eye for two years. Thankfully E3 2009 saw the return of ol' Sam, and my time with his new adventure left me desperately wanting more. In fact, it was my game of the show.

"Splinter Cell: Conviction" is set around the events after Sam Fisher's daughter is killed in a suspicious car crash. Sam is rightfully pretty pissed about the whole thing and basically goes on a bloody quest to take down the folks responsible. The game still has a big focus on stealth, requiring you to use guerrilla tactics to get the jump on your foes, but Sam has a lot more tools in his belt.

What It's Doing Right

Speedy Sam
Although Sam has always been deadly, when it came to moving about his world, he was pretty slow and plodding. In "Conviction," he moves much faster, with a smoothness that you'd expect to see from a trained spec-ops ninja. He can slide along walls, run while crouched and leap into open windows with the grace of Altair, and such fleet-footedness makes getting out of sticky situations much more natural.

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Tags splinter cell, splinter cell: conviction, ubisoft

CLARIFICATION: The Game Critics Awards ballot I filled out was to create the list of nominees. I submitted 3-5 picks for each of the categories below, but in the interest of brevity I've just included my top pick for each category. It may end up that some or all of my top picks won't be final nominees in the awards, since it's based on a consensus of the judges.

With that out of the way, here are my top picks for each category:

Best in Show: "Splinter Cell: Conviction"
Best Original Game: "Scribblenauts"
Best Game, Console: "Splinter Cell: Conviction"
Best Game, Handheld: "Scribblenauts"
Best Game, PC: "Alpha Protocol"
Best Hardware/Peripheral: "Project Natal"
Best Action Game: "Modern Warfare 2"
Best Action/Adventure Game: "Splinter Cell: Conviction"
Best RPG: "Alpha Protocol"
Best Racing Game: "Split/Second"
Best Social/Casual Game: "Ricochet" (Project Natal's ball-bouncing game)
Best Online Multiplayer: "MAG"
Best Graphics: "Uncharted 2"
Best Sound: "Uncharted 2"

Notable runners-up include: "Brutal Legend," "Heavy Rain," "DJ Hero," "Lost Planet 2," "Homefront" and "ModNation Racers." I was a little bummed not to see a downloadable games category this year, as "Shadow Complex" and "PixelJunk Shooter" definitely deserve nods, but there's always next year!

Tags best of e3 2009, e3

Harmonix and MTV Games showed off "The Beatles: Rock Band" in MTV's Times Square headquarters yesterday, and we thought it would make for a good opportunity to ask about the the oft-rumored, basically-confirmed-but-not-quite release of "Green Day: Rock Band."

Watch John Drake, a spokesman for Harmonix, deftly dodge the question, but it's pretty obvious that we'll be hearing about the game very soon.

In case you're outside the US and can't watch the video, here's the breakdown:

John Drake, Harmonix: We have some really great artists that we're working on a lot of fronts for "Rock Band" in the future and we're going to be talking more about that coming soon.

MTV Multiplayer: So nothing to say about "Green Day: Rock Band"?

John Drake: No, but Green Day's really, really great! Wouldn't you love to see Green Day in "Rock Band"? I would also love to see Green Day in "Rock Band"! Hopefully we'll have some official news soon! [coy smile]

Touché, Harmonix!

Tags green day: rock band, rock band

The reveal of the iPhone 3GS at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this week was exciting some, soul-crushing for others. For example, if you bought a 3G in the past year or so, upgrading to a 3GS, with its improved processor and graphics chip, will set you back several hundred dollars (at least if you're buying through AT&T). Video support, and improved camera and faster load times are probably not worth the expense (though that's really up to you), but what games will you be missing out on?

We spoke to Neil Young, co-founder of ngmoco, one of the leading game publishers on the iPhone. You may know them from their work on "Rolando", "Topple" and, most recently, "Star Defense." The question: Will they be making iPhone 3GS-exclusive games?

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Tags livefire, ngmoco