This is the infamous head rip that set E3 ablaze when it was shown during the game play, I thought you guy’s would like to see it for yourselves. Most sights are not showing it but we keep it GULLY over here!! Post comment to let me know it this will make you buy the game or is it to gruesome. I personally think that it is what next gen gaming is all about.
BY PRESSING PLAY YOU ARE STATING THAT YOU ARE EIGHTEEN OR OLDER

At E3 there are a lot of great games on the show floor, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other quality titles shown elsewhere. During E3 HipHopGamer, DaSolidProof, and I got picked up and were taken to a penthouse in downtown L.A. to try out Def Jam’s newest game “Rapstar”. The game is different from any other video game we’ve seen from Def Jam in the past. It’s not a fighting game, but rather a music game where players rap their favorite songs as they come on screen. This is not similar to DJ Hero or DJ Scratch, but it really has it’s place in the marketplace as it is the first karaoke video game that focuses on the hiphop lifestyle and music. This game is going to appeal to the people who were left out of games like Lips and Singstar because while those games had a wide variety of music they never had hiphop the way Rapstar does.

The game, which is being developed by former Rockstar employees at the newly created 4mm games, will focus on players matching the timing and pitch of the song as they rap them. The game will come with modes like battle, duet, online, single player, and freestyle. Freestyle is the interesting one because it will allow you to rap to your favorite beats and make your own song. The song will be recorded as you rap it, and you could have it upload to the Rapstar community webpage in a matter of minutes.

The community the guys at 4mm want to create is really the amazing thing about this game. You do a song in any mode and while you are rapping it if you have a Eye Toy or 360 camera they will pick you up and record it. Then at the end you can make a 30 second clip of your song and send it off to the community page for everyone to see, rank, and enjoy. Also the people who score the highest amount of points in the game will get love on the page as there will be rankings of the top players in the world.

The community reminded me a bit of  youtube and myspace with similar features that work well together. It looks well done, and for all the videos you upload you can do it straight from your console. Also let’s say you have the top score on a song and someone tops your score you will receive updates via your iPhone. They want the community to be in your console, your office, and mobile phone.

HipHopGamer absolutely loved this game. As a rapper and a rap fan he hasn’t had the chance to expierence a game like this on consoles. The playlist included songs from Kanye West to Biggie Smalls to T.I. & Rihanna. The team told me that they really want to have all types of rap from mainstream to hardcore from old school to new school. They want every fan of hiphop to enjoy this game. Even though the game has Def Jam in the title that doesn’t mean you will only be able to rap Def Jam songs. The catalog will come from all record labels.

We were told that they are aiming to have 40 songs on the final game which is a nice number but leaves some to be desired. With other music games having having 80+ songs nowadays, at least 50 would seem like a good number. The game will have DLC availalbe the day the game launches though. They will charge the industry norm for music packs and DLC.

Another thing that they made sure to mention was that they want people to be able to use any type of mic with this game. From expensive to cheap they said this game will support it. I was told the game would have multiple bundles with different mic’s, so maybe you will have a choice both price wise and quality wise on what type of mic you wish to use.

The thing that really gave me hope with this game came at the end when Jamie King, the founder of 4mm games, came up to us and talked to us about the game before battling hiphopgamer in a rap battle. The man has a passion for games, and hiphop and really wants this game to succeed. Check out the next HipHopGamerShow where you will be ble to Jamie and HipHop go at it.

Def Jam Rapstar is targeting a Winter 2009 release date at the moment, and at the moment the final track list hasn’t been finalized. This game is hoping to go where no other karaoke game has gone before and appeal to the masses who have been left out of previous music games. The idea seems solid, the community seems great, and the guys working on the game have a passion for what they are doing. Let’s see what they can do.

First off, let me tell you that the game looks gorgeous. The lighting effects are amazing. Kratos never looked as stunning as he did in this DEMO. The detail in his face and his body was impressive. The way the blood splattered on his body was insane. It truly is a bloody work of art. The game is soaked with blood. There is so much blood that it will satisfy any blood thirsty bastard.

The game is like any other God of War game, but with better graphics, weapons, moves, and story. Sure it is the same old game with big upgrades, but there is nothing wrong with that. When you rip a centaur’s stomach open and see his guts fall out………….damn. Nothing tops that. Except, when you rip of Helios’s head and you literally see the skin on his neck peel off before blood spews out. I have never seen anything like that in real life, but it probably would have looked like that. Clearly the game has stepped its brutality up thanks to the next generation technology. It is obviously better than the PS2’s technology.

To start off the demo you are introduced to some familiar enemies. You beat the shit out of them and move on. You are only given two weapons, the usual blades and the new Cestus. Both have unique moves and are good for different situations, but overall the blades are still the weapon of choice. You also get the good old bow and arrow. I did not really use it much until I got to the harpy section, where you have to shoot a harpy with an arrow to call it over. You use the harpies to “jump” to higher sections. You hold L1+O to latch on and you may have thought you have to mash square to get it to fly, like me, but you just hold L1+O and Kratos will do the rest. Finally you hit the X to jump off by ripping apart the harpy.

Later you get your first glimpse at the Fire Titan. Man, was that a site. I first thought that the Titan looks horrible in terms of detail, color, etcetera, but when I seen the hi-res character model, that all changed. You are greeted with more skeleton dudes, you kick there ass and then face the centaur. Fast forward to when you meet the Chimera. This was my favorite part. When you weaken him and grab him, you cut off his tail. He starts hitting you with new attacks and you weaken him again, and grab him. This time Kratos stabs it several times. Here is where I was sort of amazed. All the cuts that you inflicted can be seen on his body. All the cuts and gashes you inflicted. That was really amazing to me. Finally, the killer final. You rip of the Chimera’s horn and stab it in its eye. You literally see the inside of the monster’s head.

Later you get to pilot the Cyclops. That was a thrilling experience. It really felt like you are forcing the Cyclops to do your bidding, since you are stabbing him in order to get him to swing his arms. You almost feel bad for the Cyclops when you rip his eyes out. Then after killing the Cyclops you kill Helios. You rip of his head and use his head as a flashlight to reveal a hidden door. You kill some more bad guys, and finally you start to fly. Yes, he grows wings out of his armpit and he starts to fly (they are Icarus’s wings). The game then sort of becomes like a flying game where you have to avoid on-coming objects. Then you finally end of the demo with Kratos latching onto the Fire Titan. You get so wrapped up in the demo that you forget it is a demo. It really sucked when I hit the end.

What I took away from it is that the game is stunning, the new weapons will be as in depth as the blades. That is something that the previous God of Wars never did. The Athena Blade’s combo list is so much better than any other weapon you get in the game, but this time around all weapons will be in-depth and used to the max. This is a game that will easily make anybodies top 10 most anticipated games of 2010. The game is expected to ship early 2010. Either way, after playing the demo, I can not wait to get my hands on the final version.

This E3 Sony showcased their biggest selling franchise, Gran Turismo, in both a PSP version and the PS3 version Gran Turismo 5. The PSP version was open to the public on the show floor, and got a release date during the Sony conference. Gran Turismo 5 though, which has been in development since 2005, had a gorgeous trailer shown, but at the end there was no release date. While no one was expecting an exact date it seems strange that there was no announcement of either 2009 or 2010.

I talked to some other journalists about this and they felt the same way. Why did they showcase the game but not even give people a year when the game would be released? Most likely it will be released in 2010, but still why show a trailer and not mention a timeframe. The stranger thing about this is that Director, Kazunori Yamauchi, said after the press conference that the game could be released right now if it had to. Obviously we don’t want them to rush what looks like an amazing game, but if the game is so far along then there should be an idea on the games release.

The game though, as you can see above, looks incredible. The shot of a car getting damaged got a lot of applause from the crowd at the Sony press conference. Cars from NASCAR and WRC (World Rally Championship) have been added to the game which will make the driving experience that much more complete. It’s almost like having three racing games in one. There will be weather changes, night races, and better online play than seen before. The game will also be able to interact with the PSP version of Gran Turismo, so when you unlock a car a in GT PSP you can add it to your PS3 library. Also note that we were told the PSP version would have over 800 cars in the game, so the PS3 version should have 800 or more cars available to drive. Quite a step up from GT 5: Prologue.

Honestly if you give me a game with the gameplay of a Gran Turismo, the graphics seen in the trailer, hundreds of cars including NASCAR and WRC, and add on damage to he cars for the first time then this game looks like a helluva product. All we need is a release date.

One of the big sequels announced during the Microsoft press conference was Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2. I managed to get some hands on time with the game on the show floor and for the most part it is looking to be a solid sequel to one of the best games of 2008.

The first thing that I noticed was how polished L4D 2 is compared to its predecessor. The environments from the campaign level “Parish” seemed to have at a lot more color to them and the entire New Orleans like level that I played seemed polished in all the parts of the demo. Valve has also given the zombies a re-design ass well, most of the zombies had different character models and on top of that they had much more detail to them and it just totally blows the first Left 4 Dead out of the water.

Of course it would’nt be a sequel if there wasn’t new enemies; Left 4 Dead 2 will introduce us to a new enemy known as the “Charger.” Now the Charger is somewhat similar to the tank but instead you mainly encounter him when you enter a small room and just like his name, he will run at you and try to slam you against a wall. He also has a attack where he grabs you and starts to repeatedly slam you into the ground and the only way to escape is if another survivor gives you a hand. The Charger is the only new enemy that was shown in the demo, but Valve promises that there will be several more new enemies and that they will be revealed over time.

Also, the arsenal in Left 4 Dead 2 will be much bigger than the first. The dual pistols seem much stronger and I was actually using them more then my primary weapon. The Uzi from the first one is back but this time it now has a silencer on it, the assault rifle is much more accurate then the one in the first L4D and the the sniper rifle is alot more powerful and useful this time around. This was all that was in the demo, but I was told that more guns will be in the final version. But the big thing in this game is the melee weapons. Valve is claiming that ammo will be very limited and that the melee weapons will be crucial to survival. The melee weapons that you’ll be using will be an axe, frying  pan, chainsaw and a baseball bat; all of these weapons are pretty much one hit kills on zombies but on the special enemies you’ll need to use a firearm.

In the sequel you won’t be playing as the origional four characters from the first Left 4 Dead. This time you’ll be playing as four new characters, who seem just a unique as the origional four. The first character is Nick who seems like a rich guy wearing a fancy suit, Coach is the tough guy of the group, Ellis is a mechanic and Rochelle is the female of the group. Just like the first game none of these characters have special attributes, so basically they all play the same which is a great thing that they kept in tact.

So in closing Left 4 Dead 2 is looking to be a solid sequel. Although it was a short demo, it was a ton of fun and we got just a sample of some of the changes to the game. Also Valve still has yet to reveal the rest of the weapons and enemies in the game and they’ve only shown one of the five new campaigns and Valve hasn’t even mentioned the new game mode that will be in the sequel. But we’ll just have to wait for Valve to reveal the goods over the next few months and it will make the November 17 release date even better.

Castlevania Reborn:

Ladies and gentleman, one of the greatest minds in the gaming industry today, is going to help revive the 3D Castlevania series. The title formerly known as Lord of Shadows, was re-introduced to gamers around the world at this year’s E3. Lord of Shadows originally had no connection with the Castlevania series. However, one of Konami’s surprise announcements was indeed a brand new 3D action game called, Castlevania: Lord of Shadows.

The first in-game trailer was revealed at this year’s E3 and was incredible. There was no concrete information on what engine the game will be running on, however it appears the game will have a similar fighting mechanic to Devil May Cry and God of War.

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows’s characters:

Based off the official trailer that was presented at E3 the game will have a stunning voice acting cast. Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek: Next Generation) plays as the narrator throughout the trailer as a mysterious character. The main protagonist in the game, Gabriel who is part of elite group of holy knights called the Brotherhood of Light, will be voiced by Robert Carlyle (28 Weeks Later, Trainspotting, The Full Monty). Natasha McElhone (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Truman Show) and Jason Isaacs (Black Hawk Down, The Patriot, Harry Potter series) will also star in the game.

What we know so far about Castlevania: Lord of Shadows:

The game is being developed by Mercury Steam and published by Kojima Productions from Konami. Mercury Steam are determined to create a rich, open game world that traverses snowy mountain ranges, Gothic castles, and undead-strewn wastelands in a devastated Southern Europe during the Middle Ages. Since the game is being overseen by Kojima Productions, this will bring the Castlevania series to whole a new level, with incredible storytelling, innovative and intriguing game play, and state-of-the-art technical elements brought together to form a revolutionary new direction for a modern 3D fantasy action epic.

Final comments:

Castlevania: Lord of Shadows was of the best showings at this year’s E3 and seeing that Hideo Kojima is going to be behind this project, I’m sold. But enough talk, enjoy the trailer.

NEWS:

At this years E3 there was a ton of games on the show floor to talk about. Games such as God Of War 3, Uncharted 2, Splinter Cell Convinction and much more but, something very strange happened! Can you guess what it is? Well it was amazing that not too many people was talking about the new Halo: ODST game. The game looks good not as colorful more realistic and with the new story mode gameplay, it seems that their would be more of a riot over this game but, in truth it was not the big splash of the show.

Halo is the type of franchise that once the name is mentioned the videogame industry stands still but not this time, could this be a sign for the worst or can Halo: ODST sustain the power Microsoft has with this exclusive franchise.

Halo: ODST does feature some kick ass gameplay in the form of how the story is told. When your character comes to an interesting part in the story it automatically moves over to the other character and you can play out that part which all leads up to you guys meeting with one another in the game.

So far this game has tons of potential and it’s definitely on the right track but it seems that even the mighty HALO name may not be as powerful as the other top games on the show floor during this years E3’09

Written By: Gerard (HipHopGamer) Williams

While E3 was amazing and a great event, it’s so large that it’s really hard to see every single thing you want to see. Add that to the fact that you hardly have time to get to a computer with a proper internet connection and you miss a lot of stuff. Now that I’m back home and double checking everything that was shown, I came across the Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer that was released, and wow. This trailer is what the prequels and the Clone Wars movie should have been. If you even have the slightest interest in Star Wars then this trailer has to have you really excited. The only downside is that it is currently on PC which makes sense since it’s a MMO, but it would be great to see this game on a console so ummm I can play it. Seriously, even though it is CG it really does look great, and I’m serious they should toss away any movie with Jar-Jar Binks in it and make a movie based off this story/world.