The Walking Dead: 400 Days will serve as "connective tissue" between the first season of the game and the second.  The DLC will be about the same size as a normal episode of the game but will be broken down into five different stories which occur at various points during the first 400 days of the zombie outbreak.
 
Each story will focus on a new character but all of them will somehow connect to the Atlanta truck stop from the first game.  As you would expect the decisions you make in the DLC will impact what happens in Season 2 of the series but what you might not expect is that the decisions from the first season will impact what happens in the DLC. The TellTale team was mum on what those could be so we'll have to wait for the game to be released next month to find out.
 
The short presentation we saw at E3 featured Vince, a man who apparently kills someone at the start of the episode and  is captured, convicted, and sentenced to jail time.  I use the word apparently because this is The Walking Dead and things are never as they seem.  Vince's story occurs on the second day of the outbreak and we find him on a prison bus with several other prisoners.  
 
As Vince chats with some of his fellow guests we learn more about them and the crimes they were accused of.  One prisoner is a white collar criminal who swindled $180M before being caught while the other was convicted of illegally touching a minor.  We also learn that the prisoners have been stuck in the hot Georgia sun conflict in a bus with windows that don't open.  As the conversation between Vince and his companions continues, the heat gets to two prisoners and as you would from a Walking Dead property people start dying and then coming back to life.
 
The tension of being confined to a prison bus with a flesh eating zombie is amplified significantly by the fact that Vince and his companions are chained to the floor.  The game immediately forces you to make difficult decisions about who lives and who dies and it's all classic Walking Dead drama. 
 
From what I saw it looks like 400 Days is going to be a great transition between the two seasons.  The writing is spot on and it leverages all of the familiar tropes of the Walking Dead universe.  It's also a subtle reminder for people like me that I need to go back and finish the first season of the game.  
 

I admit, I'm not very well versed in the Assassin's Creed series. Having not played any, I was going into the demo of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag with an open mind. Coming out, I was so thoroughly impressed that I became one who was indifferent to the series to wanting to purchase the game on day one.

The hands off demo focused on the exploration aspect of the game. We were shown the map of the entire gaming world, which is a large portion of the Caribbean. There's a three large cities to explore and a vast amount of seas to sail so you should have plenty to do in the game. The studio wanted to truly model the locale that would be hanging around and you could see that in the detail presented in simulating the population of the town.

The demo had Edward picking up an assassination contract, which is a side quest. Tasked with taking down twins, Edward proceeds to the area where the marker dictates where the two are. He quickly dispatches with one while the other target runs off. There are several ways you can dispatch your targets and the demo showed what happens when someone jumps on their boat and takes off. Edward proceeded to his boat and I got a taste of ship to ship combat.

Ship to ship combat is quite frantic in Assassin's Creed IV. The boats move relatively quickly and are quite maneuverable. The first part involves damaging the opposing ship enough so that you can board it. There are visual cannon path lines that you can adjust to see how the cannonballs will fire. You may sometimes opt for a straight shot, or you can lob cannonballs into the middle of the ship. Once enough damage has been done, the two ships link up for a boarding scenario.

Before Edward jumps over to the other ship, he can take a small cannon and pick off some soldiers on the other boat. Now, the amount of crew you have is important here as with more crew, there's less fights you need to do so it's prudent to keep a large group on your ship. The person playing the demo displayed Edward's effortless movement vertically and horizontally as Edward traversed the masts and sails to get to the other boat. Once the other target has been dispatched, and in the demo there was an incredible dive from the sail posts down to the target, you're given a few choices. Beforehand, you could use a spyglass to look at a boat and see what salvaging possibilities there here. With that knowledge, you can then decide what you would like to do. One possibility is to use the boat to repair the damage on your own boat. You could also capture this boat into your fleet and set it to work for you. It's really up to you and the ship combat before the final siege is truly exciting to watch.

The weather in Assassin's Creed IV is dynamic and can play a part in helping or hindering you. The demo showed off the quick and sudden change to a hard rain and off in the distance was a hurricane. If you're savvy enough, you can use the hurricane to your advantage, but it's a dangerous proposition. 

Some islands can contain alive or dead NPC. With those that are alive, you can recruit them and loot them. Dead ones can also hold valuable information. For the demo, a dead person on a remote island had a treasure map on him. Now viewing the map only showed a few clues, and it's up to you to figure out what it means. Edward was then lead to the place where the map was referring to and some of the new items were shown. Edward has a dart gun that he can use with various poison darts. The one used caused the enemy to go crazy and attack his friends, causing a good distraction for Edward to walk by. After fighting some enemies and finding he area designated by the map, Edward was able to dig up the treasure containing a large amount of gold and blueprints for a more powerful weapon. 

I should mention while sailing to the island with the treasure, I saw a whale jump out of the water near the boat, which was a pretty impressive sight. You can than relay information about the whale back to your base to get them to hunt the beast if you so desire.

The game looked absolutely gorgeous though. The lush Caribbean landscape combined with the incredibly rendered seas made for a beautiful game to watch. Also, the way Edward almost glides between areas as he traverses the terrain is almost hypnotic. Assassin's Creed IV is a visually impressive game to behold.

They were also demonstrating the second screen option for Black Flag as well, which seems to be a hot trend this year. You can use a tablet to see where your ship is on the map as well as direct some orders to your base. Also, any treasure map hints can be shown on the tablet so you can easily reference it without having to do it in game as you are playing. I was pretty impressed by what you can do and see with the second screen option and I think I'd use it a lot while playing Assassin's Creed IV.

As Calvin Candie would say, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. I was pleasantly blown away by what I saw with the demo and I'm now anxious to pick up the game. I guess I should play the first few to get a handle on the series, but I'll definitely be seeing the full game on my PC once it's released.?

Where do you go after such an incredible experience with Batman: Arkham City? Why you go back to the beginning. And that's what Warner Bros Montreal has done with Batman: Arkham Origins. 

Taking place Christmas Eve in the early years of Batman's existence, Black Mask is offering a rather large bounty to anyone that can kill the Batman. The amount of money draws all sorts of criminals to Gotham and Batman has to survive them all hunting him down trying to collect the reward.

I was able to sit down and play through about a 30 minute demo of the game. The graphics look about the same, but I was told there were some minor improvements that might not jump out to anyone. It still looks really, really nice to me and I've become quite fond of the art style that this series uses to portray the Dark Knight. 

The first half of the demo feels very familiar as you are introduced to the combat system. That free-flowing style that makes Batman such a joy to watch when he's fighting is all here and nothing's change. Warner Bros Montreal specifically stated they didn't want to change anything that's worked so well in two games so they pretty much left that alone with some minor improvements. Having not played Arkham City in so long, it didn't take much time for me to feel comfortable in fighting a group of thugs and taking them down with extreme prejudice.

Two new enemies were on display in the demo. The first one is a big brute with armor, that can't be taken down until the armor has been removed. You need to do three cape stuns to bring the brute down and then a multitude of quick hits to finally be able to pull the armor off. Only then can you finish the brute off, and of course you have to deal with the multiple foot soldiers that surround him at the same time.

Another new enemy is a karate expert and in the demo there were two I had to deal with. When alone, they were a handful as they did many quick hits as well as countering your hits. When the two are near you, you can almost expect a pounding as they work together well in punishing you with quick hits. 

Now, what got me a little excited is an improved detective dynamic. Walking around, I witnessed a helicopter go down in front of me. Using improved detective vision, I scanned an area near the site of the crash to get a clue. With that evidence in the computer, the crime scene gets recreated in front of you, but only in small parts. You're able to fast forward and rewind the bit that's recreated to show you even more clues of what happened. The crash site had the helicopter tail missing so I did a search to see that it hit a sign before it went down. Examining an area in the crime produced more data points, thus recreating more of the crime scene to view. Rewinding again, I found the tail section missing in the other area. Scanning the tail section revealed a bullet hole which led to the recreation at the point of the bullet striking the helicopter. Seeing the laser from the sniper scope, I swung over to the origin of the laser to find a dead SWAT sniper. Scanning the sniper, I found that it wasn't him that shot the bullet, but it was a bullet that ricocheted from another area that took out the SWAT member and then the helicopter. Only a select few can do this and this lead me to the conclusion it was Deadshot who was behind this all along. So, this was a simple example of piecing together clues to solve what happened at the crime scene and tapping into the detective element of the world's greatest detective.

New gadgets, of course, will be making its way into Arkham Origins. The one thing I played with during the demo was a batarang with a line attached to it. You can use this a few different ways. For one, you can shoot it between two gargoyles and create a line where Batman can walk on. You can use this to drop down on unsuspecting criminals and take them out. Another effective way is to shoot it at an enemy and latch it to an exploding barrel making for an easy takedown. That's just one example of a new gadget that's going to be available in the game.

The final part of the demo revealed the Joker as he toys with Batman and blows up a large, uninhabited building. The Joker's design seems more sinister than the last few games with a more jagged look on parts of his face. That infectious Joker laugh and humor ends the demo and my time with the game until its released date.

It's maybe a new studio, but my quick time with Batman: Arkham origins is one of my most memorable from the show. As a big fan of the first two games, I have very high hopes for this one and playing the demo hasn't dashed any of that. Let's hope that it lives up to the others upon release in October 25.

Also I have to make a quick mention of Blackgate, the Sony VITA game that's also coming out taking place in the same universe. While I didn't get a chance to play much, I thought the game looked fabulous on the hand held. It takes place three months after Blackgate and features some minor spoilers if you haven't finished Origins. The quick scene I saw had Batman meeting Catwoman for the first time. Like I said, it looked pretty good with the short amount of time I had with it, but I definitely need to play more to really know how well it holds up.

Bethesda's going into the survival horror genre and who better to lead this charge than Shinji Mikami, creator of the Resident Evil series. Mr. Mikami was on hand to talk about his latest project in that he wants to take survival horror back to its roots with this game. He wants you to experience unimaginable fear and to feel that triumph when you overcome those fears. That means you're low on resources, low on ammo, and low on the feeling of being safe for any amount of time.

The Evil Within has you playing Detective Sebastian Castellanos in a third person view and what was shown was the beginning of the game as well as a sequence from later on. For the beginning, you arrive with a few fellow officers to the Beacon Mental Hospital. It's raining outside with plenty of empty police cars in the parking area in front. As you enter the hospital, you see plenty of dead people strewn about and Sebastian makes his way to the security office. In there, he watches a security camera where three officers get brutally murdered by some ghostly apparition. Suddenly, the apparition appears behind Sebastian and knocks him out.

Sebastian then wakes up, hanging upside down, in a room with a very disturbing figure who I'll call the butcher.This hulking figure wears a white tank top and some weird contraption that surrounds his head. You hear, but don't see, him take a cleaver and cut off the upper half of one of the bodies hanging in the room and watch him drag it to a table for more mutilation. Detective Sebastian is able to cut himself down with a help of a knife sticking into a dead body hanging near him and proceeds to stealthily steal a key from the butcher to unlock his way out of the room.

Unfortunately, as Sebastian is trying to sneak away, he trips an alarm alerting the butcher who grabs a chainsaw and starts to chase the protagonist. What follows is an intense scene where Sebastian runs down a corridor and the camera is focused on Sebastian from behind. You hear the butcher getting closer and closer with his chainsaw in tow. The butcher catches up to Sebastian and takes a swipe, cutting the back of one of his legs. From now to the end of the first part, Sebastian walks with a heavy limp, making him even more vulnerable.

Sebastian then continues to sneak around the hospital area as the butcher searches for him. There's the often used scene of hiding inside a locker and seeing the butcher walk by through a slit, hoping that he doesn't turn around and open the door to your hiding spot. The limping causes more tension as you know you won't be able to run away from the butcher quickly, should he find you. After some more intense sequences sneaking around the butcher, Sebastian finally gets away, barely, in an elevator only to walk outside to see a devastated city.

The second scene shown has Sebastian walking through an old building. Zombies come slowly lumbering towards Sebastian and he's able to take one down with a headshot. With another, he fires enough bullets into the body to knock it down and then proceeds to burn it with a torch. A nice sequence shown is the ability to set some traps. Sebastian uses some mines placed under windows and doors to fend off a hoard of zombies coming at him. In another area, Sebastian is walking down a hallway when suddenly a wave of blood comes rushing towards him.

When it clears, Sebastian is in another place. Instead of an old, dilapidated building, he's now in some medical facility. In the middle at the end of the corridor lies a pile of bodies. All around, there are blood streaks and bloody hand prints. Suddenly, a monster made up several appendages come ripping through the bodies and chases you. Thus ends the intense demo of The Evil Within.

?The game uses both video and audio effectively to convey a sense of fear. There's a grainy film like view to the world and intense music as well as disgusting sound effects combine together to really set the mood. The visuals seem very Resident Evil like to me and the designs of both the creatures and environments make for a truly horrific looking experience. All told, The Evil Within looks incredibly intense and a game that can offer up a truly horrifying experience.

I wrapped up the main campaign for Borderlands II a few months after the game was released and haven't been back since.  Some of the DLC has looked interesting but nothing has really screamed "Play Me"  That is about to change as playing the first 25 minutes of Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep has convinced me to return to Pandora.
 
The upcoming DLC has the vault hunter sitting around with Lilith, Brick, and Mordecai  back at Sanctuary playing "Bunkers and Badasses", a Dungeons and Dragons like game.  Tiny Tina is the "Bunker Master" of the game and leading the crew through their first game. 
 
What hit me immediately was how good the writing was as the dialogue was spot on with a perfect mix of humor and sweetness.   I can't say more without ruining one of the major plot points of Borderlands 2 but there's a wonderful exchange between Lilith and Tina that I hope pays off later in the game.
 
The actual game action is you fighting your through the game that Tina is running.  This isn't just a linear quest though, the world changes as she changes her mind about what the question contains.  She starts out with a happy village (complete with a rainbow over it) before changing it to a dark and dreary world.  All of this happens in real time which adds a almost Looney Tunes feel to the game (this is a very good thing). 
 
The game does take a few shots at the traditional tropes of D&D like having to roll for initiative but it's done in a loving way.  Even the first set of enemies are typical D&D fare as you face hordes of skeleton archers and swords men.  You also run across Skeleton Minotaurs or "Skeletaurs" which brought a quick smile to my face.
 
I will admit that I was a bit disappointed when my time with Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep expired as I was having a lot of fun.  I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of the plot goes  as I have a feeling that the DLC is setting up a pretty emotional moment but I won't know until I get a bit further into the game.  Even if it doesn't this looks like a must have pick up for Borderlands 2 fans.

“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” will be hosting the fourth annual video game week from June 17-21 at 12:35 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on NBC. It will feature a mash-up of the latest video games, musical performances and comedy sketches.
 
The line-up for the week will consist of the following featured games:  Monday, Forza Motorsport 5; Tuesday, Knack; Wednesday, Watch Dogs; Thursday, Call of Duty: Ghosts; Friday, Game & Wario and Super Mario 3D World.
 
“Late Night” will additionally have numerous musical guests tied to the video game world to appear during the week like Anamanaguchi, Chvrches, and Zedd with special guest Foxes to perform game-themed songs such as Zedd’s remix of “The Legend of Zelda” theme song and more. See the link down below for more details! [READ MORE]

Franchise revivals are a becoming more and more relevant, with recent successes Devil May Cry and Tomb Raider, and developer Machine Games took note. With Wolfenstein: The New Order, the developer, under publisher Bethesda, is hoping to revive the franchise in a way relevant to 2013. 

In my hands-on time with The New Order, I duel-wielded shotguns, destroyed hulking Nazi mechanized tanks and fought my way through a solar observatory. Wolfenstein is still as offbeat as ever.

The demo takes place in a Nazi base, as I fight my way through underground caverns, hidden arsenals and exposed catwalks. Throughout the demo, I'm taught game mechanics through diary entries, such as how to lean from behind cover or how to hot-wire safe mechanisms, allowing me access to the upgrades or ammunition inside.

This hacking technique is done by pushing the analog sticks toward one another, then pulling the triggers simultaneously. The first safe I find nets me a permanent health upgrade; this upgrade shortly comes in handy.

As I exit a room with my newly acquired health increase and dual pistols, a mech fires on me, followed by a rush of Nazi officers and armored soldiers. Even on the normal difficulty, called "Bring 'Em On," The New Order is difficult. Cover is scarce in corridors and rooms, and the enemy soldiers are eager to flank me any chance they get.

As I progress through the level provided at E3, I notice a few differences between The New Order and other shooters. For one, you have to manually loot bodies for health, as well as weapons for ammo, rather than pick it all up automatically. This looting system is at odds with most modern shooters, so it takes a while to get accustomed to it.

With the revival of a new franchise comes challenges. What is sacrificed? What remains? Machine Games has been staring down the barrel of that question for some time now. Whether they mounted that hurdle remains to be seen when Wolfenstein releases later this year for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.
 

The Millenium Falcon has almost escaped. Han Solo, realizing his ship can't outrun the pursuing Imperial TIE Fighters, decides to take a stand. He, along with new acquaintance Luke Skywalker, mans the ship's turrets to fight off the imperial pests. 

It's this moment that struck developer Asteroid Base more than any other Star Wars scene. Jamie Tucker, Matt Hammill and Adam Winkels remember Han and Luke climbing and descending the Millenium Falcon's ladders every time the developers work on Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime.

"We're huge fans of Star Wars," Tucker said during a cooperative play session of his game at the E3 Indiecade exhibit. "Well, the original ones that is." Tucker smiled as he manned the turrets of his own digital Millenium Falcon.

Lovers In a Dangerous Spacetime –– an Independent Games Festival finalist –– is an upcoming cooperative shooter with vibrant, neon colors, electronic music and a slew of aliens that want to destroy it all. Releasing for PC and Mac, players take control of their own pilots in Lovers, as they steer and defend the ship –– a spherical fortress of turrets, a shield and a giant laser cannon –– through a solar system rife with obstacles.

The ship is filled with ladders, a steering wheel and control panels, all of which players must run between to defend the circular ship on all sides. Only two buttons are needed: a jump and action button. Tucker mans the wheel while I dart between turrets, defending our Millennium Falcon from the onslaught of enemies.

"You can move between the wheel, the turrets, the laser whenever you want," Tucker tells me. "We're looking for planets that will help us upgrade, and just trying to survive. " Although a campaign mode with a barebones story is in the works, Tucker said the Arcade Mode –– which we're playing now –– is the best way to play if you want shorter sessions.

We come across one of the planets Tucker mentioned, and after blasting a trio of robots off of it with the uppermost turret, hearts flow from the rock mass into our ship, refilling the health we lost en route to the location.

The next few planets are all a desperate bid for survival, as I'm rarely at one turret before I leap up ladders and jump over gaps to destroy enemies on the other side of the ship, or man the shield to defend against a powerful array of enemy laser blasts. In our most desperate moments, I can use a tube of green energy to fire a rotating laser that destroys most of which it touches. Although it has unlimited uses, the cooldown time necessitates strategic use.

With a healthy stack of points at the end of our session –– only one previous duo beat ours on the E3 show floor –– our ship exploded in a rain of neon embers and shrapnel. Our time was up, but I couldn't help but want more.

Bethesda has announced that it's Next-Gen games The Elder Scrolls Online, The Evil Within, and Wolfenstein: The New Order will all be available on PS4 and Xbox One- in addition to The Elder Scrolls Online being available for PC and Mac.

Below is the newest trailer for Elder Scrolls Online.
For more information on any of these games, visit www.bethsoft.com

With the 2012-2013 NBA season coming to a close (as soon as the Heat take care of those over the hill Spurs), 2K sports is out at E3 already hyping up the world for the next season. With NBA 2K14 launching in October, the company was quick to show off just what it has in store for the new generation of consoles at Sony's press conference.

A short trailer was shown this week giving some insight on the level of detail and realism that the developer is bringing to the players this year. Thanks to the wonders of Video Game James, the digital Lebron looks even more imposing than the real one on the court. If this looks this good, drawing from an alpha-build of the game's engine (which the developer says it was), I cannot wait to see the final version in motion.
   

In Need for Speed Rivals, you're either a racer or a cop. In developer Ghost's new trailer for the newest entry in the Need for Speed franchise, a racer tells his side of the story, and the motivations behind street racing. 

Set in a dynamic open world, players can drop in and drop out of Need for Speed Rivals at will, in a game "that never plays the same," the developer said. 

For more on Need for Speed Rivals, cheak out our hands-on preview on the E3 show floor.

Normally, I hate it when a developer or company simply announces the existence of a project in passing. I am talking about simply telling you that it exists and offering absolutely zero information aside from that. Considering how much I loved the original game, I guess I can make an exception in the case of Popcap and their announcement of Peggle 2.

Yes, Peggle 2 is coming.And it is coming later this year. that is pretty much all that we know as the game was simply announced in a matter of 5 seconds at the EA press conference earlier this week. There are no other details or information available at this time but at least you know to start clearing your personal schedule now.