Six years have passed since I  invested any significant amount of grandiose interest in an anticipated video game release. The last game bestowed with the honor of grabbing my attention was none other than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for reasons that seem juvenile when placed within the context of contemporary game design. Although my own personal disinterest in the latest modern blockbusters could be explained by a variety of reasons, I believe the last half decade of video games have been lacking in unique ideas. That is until around 1:00pm this past Thursday, when after viewing the thirty minute presentation of 2K Marin’s XCOM that familiar feeling of boyish wonderment and excitement stimulated my senses.

Developer 2K Marin has been on top of the world lately… well, most of them. The team originally stemmed from the crew that brought the world of Rapture to life in the first BioShock. A few corporate decisions later, the developers became known as “2K Marin” and helmed the prodigious task of following up BioShock with a proper sequel. Once that project was all set and shipped off, the team began work on XCOM. Considering the history of these very talented creators, it shouldn’t be a surprise that XCOM gives off a similar vibe to  the first BioShock.

The setting is idyllic 1950s America.  Society lives during a post-wartime with little to worry about other than cutting the grass and painting white picket fences. This is also a time for conspiracy theorists and superstitious folk to begin an era of UFO sightings and alien abductions. However, are these reports the result of hysteric citizens who have become afraid of their own shadows? Or are these interactions with the unknown truthful experiences? That’s the question the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit plans to answer.

XCOM is all about uncovering the unknown, no matter the cost

XCOM is a task force branched from the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a goal of discovering the substantiality of these otherworldly reports; if necessary they will prepare America to battle the mysterious and unknown. The player takes on the role of the leader of XCOM and discovering the secrets that our extraterrestrial visitors are hiding. This press-presentation of the game was played by 2K Main’s own James Sharpe a developer working on the game, while another developer, Martin Slater, narrated the events that occurred.

The demonstration started at XCOM’s headquarters, an airport hanger that acts as a front for the entrance to this task force’s base of operations. The first thing I noticed about XCOM was its art style. Colors are strong and vibrant, character models are exaggerated with elongated limbs matched with cartoonish faces, and every asset in the game seems to have been the product of a Team Fortress 2 and Pixar Film marriage.

As I was marveling at the stylistic art direction, Slater explained each individual section and room within the headquarters. There was a team of busy worker-bees perusing files and using type writers, determined to learn more about their objective. We moved through the corridors and came across the laboratory where scientists examined an alien artifact to dissect useful information about its design and make. Finally, we stopped by the weapons expert who notified us that a new weapon had been conceived thanks to the research the player had gathered in previous missions.

The art style has the uncanny ability to look cartoony and realistic at the same time

It was in this room we learned about the artillery XCOM agents were equipped with to combat alien forces. The weapons expert handed us a grenade-sized glass ball of goo that, when thrown, enflamed the inside contents. On the way out, we picked up a shotgun and the intriguing “lightning gun” which had been described as “extremely effective” against our adversaries. After suiting up for what dangerous deeds were to come before us, we made our way to the national map.

Slater explained that all missions in XCOM would be in response to paranormal activity reported by citizens of the United States. Small blips across the map indicated mission locations.   Upon choosing which location we’d be visiting, our agent was briefed with the mission’s objectives and what intelligence we had about the surrounding area. The 911 call that was made at the site was played for us, whilst we were provided with a clipboard filled with notes. Following a trip back to the airport’s garage and picking up two fellow XCOM agents, we were on our way.

Upon reaching our destination, the sense of obscurity and mischief was palpable. The joyful streets were vacant of neighbors and children, and true to spy-film nature, it was quiet… too quiet. Slater explained that much of the level design was dependent on investigating the environment and being on top of your senses, using your brain, not your gun. A scream was heard from one of the nearby houses which prompted us to explore what caused the shriek of terror.

Victims’ deaths can be examined to research important advancements for your goal

Unfortunately we had arrived too late and found a dead body covered with black goo that stood out when juxtaposed to the colorful surroundings. It was at this point that the investigating we had been hearing so much of was finally shown in gameplay-form. Our agent took out a flash-photography camera and snapped a picture of the poor-soul who became victimized by the ominous goo. Instantly, bullet points of what this photograph could possibly reveal was explained to the right of the finalized picture.

However, we didn’t have time to examine the information here on the field, there were still other people in the nearby houses and a trail of black goo exited the corpse’s resting place and made way towards the house next-door. After following these subtle clues, we made our way into the compromised house and were ambushed by a plethora of creatures.  A firefight ensued that left the once beautiful household marred by remnants of black tar. Amidst the chaos, one of our teammates was taken over and killed, it was time for the lightning gun.

With a booming thunder, the once fear-inducing antagonistic foes fell to the fury generated by our extremely effective lightning gun. We made our way from room-to-room until we finally reached the young woman under attack. After a successful rescue, it was hinted at that our struggle was not over, we would still have to return to our vehicle and exit alive. Seemed like a simple task, but once we left the premises of the goo-ridden household, a new threat pended before us.

Spoilers: The guy in this picture dies

An enormous monolith referred to as “The Tile” levitated over the street that would be our way out. Before we were given a moment to assess the situation, The Tile changed forms into an intimidating ring of doom and reigned terror on our last remaining squad member. It was at this point in time that Sharpe, the developer playing the game, demonstrated that without knowing what we were facing it’d be impossible to harm it. The lightning gun was ineffective and our shotgun would have trouble competing with Pea Shooter.

The only answer was run, retreat and return to our laboratory with our newly acquired information and hope it would reveal the weakness of this new enemy type. After a slew of graphical effects that manipulated gravity and a strong pulling force that brought us closer to the threat we were desperately trying to outrun… the demo ended with a title card: “XCOM.”

2K Marin has a strong pedigree for fantastic game design and narratives that are often referred to as some of the medium’s best. In a day and age where every game is about making explosions bigger, muscles thicker and thinking less important, XCOM seems to be going against the grain by believing that players want to do more than count headshots. The investigative aspects of XCOM’s central core design seem very interesting to me and, if done right, could lead to a very compelling experience. I’m also interested in uncovering the mystique of the extraterrestrial, and with all that in mind: XCOM is easily one of my most anticipated titles for 2011.

A load of brand new Dead Rising 2 screenshots dropped on our digital doorstep, and of course we’re here to spread the wealth. Dead Rising 2 will be available in the US on August 31st and September 3rd in the UK, so be sure to mark your calendars and keep checking back often. We’ll be sure to have plenty more to keep you occupied until then.

A new trailer has been released for the dark fantasy co-op action game, Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. This trailer does show off some pretty nice looking in-game footage, but it’s kinda hard to really get a feel for it in-between all the CG images. It looks like it may have a bit of promise, but so far I’m not getting my hopes up until I can see some hands-on gameplay.

The Microsoft Conference just ended with big news, a new sku of the Xbox 360 is shipping to retailers today and will be on sale for consumers later this week. Everyone in the audience was lucky enough to get this new model for free, but the rest of us schmucks will have to buy this new model for $299 dollars. Here are the details of what this new console will have:

Last time around we had Netflix, and this year it’s ESPN. If you’re a big sports fan then this information probably is going to make you crap yourself. ESPN will apparently be free for any Gold Member of Xbox Live. Which means you get infinite amount of previous sports games, World Cup, Basketball finals, and live events. Here’s a list of features and abilities that ESPN on Xbox360 will have, and how it relates back to Kinect:

The Microsoft E3 press conference continues on at this very second, but the Gears of War 3 demo just finished and showed off a pleathora of interesting features and details on the upcoming release. First off, four player co-op is confirmed, there are more characters than just Marcus, Dom, Cole, and Baird. Cliff Bleszinski also hinted at Epic showing off a new mode called “Beast” on the show floor. Here are the bullet points of what else was shown:

Over the past year we’ve known Microsoft’s pursuits of the motion control idea manifest into a project named “Natal.” Today, a day before Microsoft’s E3 press conference, it has been revealed that Natal’s true name for the retail market will be “Kinect.” Along with this surprised announcement comes a plethora of news from USA Today including details of announced games for Microsoft’s Kinect:

Don’t know what TalkGames is? Read our description page.

E3 is just around the corner, and to suit up the TalkGames podcast takes a look over the list of exhibitors for the show. As we widdle our way down the enormous list we give impressions and thoughts about what games will be showed at E3 and if we’re interested in them or not. At the end of the show we also answer a few emails by talking about Red Dead, our PC specs, and Natal. Here are the show notes for the mammoth show:

Looks like Gears of War 3 is continuing to fill its cast with celebrity rap and hip hop artists. Alongside the previously leaked information that Ice T would be appearing in the game has a character, the news is now that Drake will be playing a character named “Jace.” The press release explains the importance of the character to the story:

Edge is saying that according to a reliable source (who spilled the Gears of War 3 details a few months ago) is going for back-to-back accurate rumors. This time the latest word is that Project Natal will not only be out this October, but will be sold at a $149 dollar price point. It will also be packaged in with new Xbox 360s for $299, and there are a few other tid bits of information that should be noted.

Every day I come into work and I cross off another day on my Marvel Superheroes calendar (this month is The Thing from the Fantastic Four). Like most people, there are always dates I need to remember that are circled and with notes on them: weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, etc., etc. When I came in today though and looked at my calendar, I couldn’t help but look ahead to the middle of June.

Anyone with his or her finger on the pulse of the video game industry has already probably concluded that I’ve got E3 on my mind. And I figured that as our collective countdown clocks approach the 50-day mark for the most celebrated video game event in the USA, if not the world, that I take a look at just what is riding on this one for our beloved Xbox 360.

Last year we were blown away with controller-less gameplay and an A.I. named Milo (which I still think will cause Arnold Schwarzenegger to come back from the future to protect someone from it) when Microsoft revealed Project NATAL. We were then pleasantly surprised to find out that it would be an accessory for the current generation console and not pave the way for a next-gen console.

“Come with me if you don’t want to play stupid mini-games”

The biggest shocker came though when we heard the release date. Many of us (myself included) were predicting something like a 2012 release date since we figured that we were still a couple of years away technology-wise from what we saw at E3. I mean face scanning and voice recognition on a home console? But Microsoft released shortly later that NATAL would be on store shelves in time for the 2010 holiday season and our jaws hit the floor.

But now we are only eight months away from the holiday season when this revolutionary accessory is supposed to drop and we are still in the dark as to what it can do, what games to expect, how much it will set us back, and how effective it will be in living up to the promises it made at last E3. Sure, Microsoft has been promoting that Alleyway/Brickbreaker style game that everyone saw at E3 to the press as they’ve been holding small events around the country to show off NATAL to those of us who couldn’t make it last year to Los Angeles. But aside from that, there hasn’t been much in the way of demos or information leaked about something that is supposed to revolutionize our industry.

That’s why, I believe, this E3 will make or break NATAL. The industry does not deal with broken promises well (at least in the short term) and if NATAL cannot provide what it showed us at last year’s E3, with a comprehensive library of compatible games and seamlessly interactive features, you could see the ground Xbox 360 has made on the Nintendo Wii in terms of sales in recent months slip and possibly fall back even further behind than what it was. We could be looking at a new Power Glove, Super Scope, or bevy of other failed gaming accessories just due to a lack of software, never mind if the technology is not up to expectations.

Is this the extent of Natal’s ability? We’ll find out this summer.

There is hope though. Peter Molyneux (who I still think would make a great James Bond villain) has been toting NATAL since Day 1 and there are signs that Fable III could be NATAL compatible. There has also been a leak of a white water rafting game that seamlessly follows your movements as you head down the Colorado River. This looks like it would be a great aerobic workout and tons of fun for the family unit. Don’t rock the boat!

There is also much speculation. Gears of War 3’s trailer should at least be on display at E3. If Epic was one of the highly touted 3rd party developers who got one of these secret development kits mentioned last year and can throw in with NATAL, then all may be well in Xbox land. If massive titles that are predicted to come out well after the release of NATAL are not compatible with it though, then the accessory’s sales could be crippled before they even get started.

It could be a big step in gaming. Wireless controls blew people’s minds and motion control turned gaming on its head. Throw those out the window altogether, and the next thing you know we’ll have virtual reality helmets and teleportation devices in our homes (yeah, I’m really invoking my creative license on this one). Honestly though, we could be on the precipice of something really big in gaming and I hope that Microsoft knows from previous mistakes that it would be easier to have something revolutionary be delayed, but have all the kinks worked out and backing from a full compliment of third party developers, than to just rush something out onto the market in order to be the first. Either way, I know I can’t wait for E3.