I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Capcom’s Street Fighter x Tekken, not only because I wanted to make sure to test out the online play and the additional PS3-exclusive fighters (y’know, “fat” Mega Man” and Cole McGrath from Infamous), but also because it’s not just another typical crossover fighter.  Yes, it combines characters from both Capcom and Namco’s respective fighting universes, but its controls are set up a little differently, rather than relying on the mechanics that worked so well in the Marvel vs. Capcom games.  That’s not a complaint by any means.  In fact, I can’t think of a hardcore fighting fan that wouldn’t dig into this thing like a treasure chest.  Casual fans, too.

REYKJAVIK -- CCP Games kicked off EVE Fanfest, its annual fan confab it dubs "Party at the Top of the World" here in Reykjavik, Iceland, the northern most capital in the world, by letting thousands of its adoring fans on hand here in Iceland to see and play DUST 514 for the first time. DUST 514, a first person shooter which CCP calls a MMOFPS that is directly tied to its EVE Online MMO universe, and is CCP's first console game that will launch exclusively on the Sony Playstation 3 later this year. We caught up with David Reid, CCP Games new CMO, to give us some more insight as to what to expect from DUST 514 in this exclusive video interview.

ORLANDO -- Over the course of the three day Red Bull LAN invitational training camp, top professional players from Blizzard Entertainment’s global eSports staple, StarCraft II and competitive players of Halo: Reach engaged in intense, focused practice in a specially-created arena at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, testing new strategies, refining techniques, facing rivals and pushing the limits of their stamina in preparation for tournament play. Attending from the Halo: Reach circuit were teams Status Quo – led by Red Bull athletes and Red Bull LAN alums Ian “Enable” Wyatt and Mike “Flamesword” Chavez, team Instinct, deemed “The God Squad” by their fans, and team Dynasty – who headed to Orlando to show they’re ready to rule the 2012 tournament circuit. Wyatt talks about the LAN and Major League Gaming (MLG) in the exclusive interview below.

LOS ANGELES -- Two of the NFL’s best reconvened in Los Angeles for a Super Bowl rematch playing Call of Duty in an Epic Grudge Match. Super Bowl Champ Ahmad Bradshaw of the New York Giants took on Pro Bowler Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots in Los Angeles. The two played new Collection 1 DLC for Modern Warfare 3. The new DLC is stockpiled with not only four Multiplayer/Survival Mode Maps, but two Special Ops Missions, giving players six pieces of content, a first for the franchise. Michael Condrey, COO and co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, talks about the Grudge Match and DLC in this exclusive video interview.

Never has a game’s ending generated so much negative reaction from the very fans who made that franchise a global blockbuster. Mass Effect 3 continues to anger fans, while receiving amazing reviews from game critics. BioWare has been using its blog to address the fan reaction to the game’s controversial ending. The company’s co-founder, Ray Muzyga, addresses the fans in an open letter to fans, which you can read below.

Before Crystal Dynamics became known as the studio that saved Tomb Raider from a fate worse than Death (c’mon, Core Design was lagging with Angel of Darkness), they had worked on a number of original franchises.  Among them was Legacy of Kain, which was handed to them after Silicon Knights worked on Blood Omen for PS One.  The team configured the series into a third-person action/adventure game, one featuring a reaver named Raziel working his way through a dank underworld, seeking revenge on Kain for actions that can’t be undone.