Top Previews from E3 2011

Dead Island, the first-person survival game from developer Techland (Call of Juarez), may take place on a tropical island, but there won't be a whole lot of rest or relaxation. Instead of dressing up in silly outfits or traveling around with a wise-cracking football coach, Dead Island's somber inhabitants spend their time in quiet desperation. Escape, survival, and deceased family members are the only topics the locals want to discuss, and it seems everyone has his or her own tragic story to tell. At this year's E3, we finally got the entire four-person...

For eight years the Chikyuu Boueigun series has titillated players with absurd third-person shooter action. In the West, the franchise has been branded with names including Monster Attack, Global Defense Force, and Earth Defense Force 2017. Longtime developer Sandlot has bowed out of the fourth installment and allowed the American studio Vicious Cycle to dabble with the framework. Due to many of these changes, publisher D3 touted Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon as a spin-off...

The 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo is the site of many things--giant monitors blaring expensive-to-produce video game trailers, giant raging herds of nerds, and highly anticipated games tucked quietly into meeting rooms. One such game is Runic's Torchlight II, a sequel to the studio's previous cartoonlike hack-and-slash game, with lots more to offer.

While the original Torchlight was generally held in high regard for being accessible, fun, and very...

It has been 18 years since our first encounters with the T. rex and velociraptors of Isla Nublar, the setting of Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park. Today at E3, we got a chance to talk to Joe Pinney, designer on Telltale's upcoming Jurassic Park game, and we came away impressed by the way the title seems to be staying true to the spirit and style of the film while telling its own new story.

Despite the tone of the Jurassic Park game, which is more serious than the games Telltale is best known for, such as Sam & Max and Back to the Future, Pinney stated that Jurassic Park will have the focus on story and...

No matter how far you run, you can't escape from the unrelenting pursuit of a hungry zombie. Walking Dead is a popular comic book series that has spawned a television program and now, thanks to Telltale Games, a video game as well. Although this adaptation is still quite early, we did find out a few details about the story and basic gameplay structure in a sit-down conversation with the developers today.

In the comic books, you follow...

When the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater arrived on the PlayStation 2, it was a remarkable technical achievement because it was the first time a Metal Gear Solid game not only took place primarily outdoors, but also featured richly detailed environments coupled with equally impressive character models. When you see screenshots and video of the Nintendo 3DS version of the game, it might not look all that different from its PS2 counterpart, but when you see it...

Things aren't getting any better for Jackie Estacado, the star of the upcoming first-person shooter The Darkness II. In our previous coverage, we saw Jackie get reacquainted with his malevolent darkness powers. We were also introduced to Victor, the head of an organization obsessed with possessing the darkness for itself. At this year's E3 convention, 2K Games and Digital Extremes were ready to give us another peek into Jackie's ongoing struggle against forces both external...

In XCOM, the name of the game is fighting fire with fire. That's how it worked in the classic PC strategy games, and it seems that philosophy hasn't changed in this modern-day reimagining. After going dark for a year, developer 2K Marin was finally ready to give us a second taste of XCOM during this year's E3 convention. 2K Marin began its presentation by defining its interpretation of what makes an X-Com game. Its points were building and customizing your team, creating a game that blends multiple genres, and facing an unknown...