In January, EA Sports released a reboot of Midway's arcade football game, NFL Blitz. Basically, I loved it, so when I sat down for a chat with EA Sports executive vice president Andrew Wilson, I asked him if we would see more NFL Blitz. "I would say so," he responded.

"I think what we've come to realize is we need to build games fans want to play," Wilson said. "We just want to hear that fans want to play it. We don't want to be the brand anymore that just puts it out because we can. I think NFL Blitz was a great value, so will we do it again? Absolutely. When will we do it again? When fans tell us it's time for the next one."

We had a quick chat with Mike Graham, a design producer at Activision, about Toys for Bob's extremely popular Skylanders franchise, and the second release in the series, Skylanders Giants. Graham kindly let us in on the reasoning behind the new game and bigger toys, and what other possibilities might be in store for Skylanders.

We also hear a little bit about where Spyro now fits in the Skylanders universe (That purple dragon that the whole series is based on? Remember him?) Turns out he's still in there, even if his name has been taken off the title for now.

Okay, so it's not the very real, very drivable Warthog that Weta crafted for Neill Blomkamp's Halo 3 short films, but the life-size Warthog prop in Microsoft's E3 booth is still pretty neat. Check out the video above for a quick tour of Halo's iconic chariot of death.

It looks like Halo 4's weekly, episodic cooperative mode, Spartan Ops, may go further than expected. Spartan Ops serves as a secondary campaign designed to compliment Halo 4's single-player campaign, and will be offered up via weekly episodes across a "season," similar to a television show. During our demonstration of Spartan Ops at E3, 343 Industries franchise development director Frank O'Connor referred to the episodes included with Halo 4 as the "first season" of Spartan Ops content. Does that mean there are more seasons in the works?

"Right now we're saying one season, but we're like a TV show, we have to see if people like our TV show." Basically, the possibility of future seasons would seem to hinge on whether people like Halo, so we'll just have to wait to see how that pans out.

Ubisoft Montreal producer Dominic Guay feels flattered by the whispers of suspicion surrounding Watch Dogs, a new third-person, open-world action game from Ubisoft. After an impressive debut at Ubisoft's E3 2012 press conference, Watch Dogs left viewers questioning whether its sophisticated environments and lighting (among other things) are a realistic match for current consoles. The official line is that it's coming to PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Speaking to Joystiq, Guay confirmed that the E3 demo is running on PC, but emphasized that Ubisoft Montreal is interested in getting Watch Dogs on "all the platforms we can." That means Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions "for sure," Guay said. A Wii U version is still up in the air.

It's easy to imagine Ubisoft releasing a scaled-down, optimized version of Watch Dogs, positioned to take advantage of the large, established audience on current consoles. It's even easier to envision the futuristic property popping up in Ubisoft's typical barrage of launch games for a new system. Both scenarios could play out by the time Watch Dogs ships, sometime after 2012.

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The follow-up to City Interactive's surprise hit Sniper: Ghost Warrior was meant to include the ability to dismember enemies with well-placed sniper shots at launch; however, the developer now says that the feature will be added to the game as post-launch DLC.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 producer Michael Sroczynski told Joystiq "dismemberment" was removed in retail copies of the game in order to ensure the title would not be banned in Germany. Sroczynski referred to the additional content as "DLC" and not an update; however, he did promise it would launch free for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. The intention is to release the content in all regions – save for Germany – as soon as the game launches later this year.

When I first watched the debut trailer for Injustice: Gods Among Us', my initial thoughts were something along the lines of "Okay, last year's Mortal Kombat with DC characters, I can get down with this." I've since discovered, however, that Injustice is not only unlike Mortal Kombat, but also unlike the majority of games in the fighting genre's illustrious and storied history.

There are many esoteric and subtle differences between the gameplay mechanics of Injustice and Mortal Kombat (such as the introduction of Street Fighter-style blocking, rather than NetherRealm's traditional block button system), but the main feature that sets the game apart is its fresh take on the combo breaker: The "Clash" system.

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Forza Horizon's take on Kinect integration will be a bit more utilitarian than the dynamic head tracking seen in Forza 4, allowing players to use voice commands to activate the game's GPS system and find their way through Horizon's open-world version of Colorado.

"We received two recurring feedback points while we were looking at this game," Playground Games' design director Ralph Fulton told us during E3. "The first one is really simple, people said 'This world so big, I found it really easy to get lost.' The second is kind of related to that, people said 'Sometimes I forget where I'm going, or what I want to do next.'"

Forza Horizon's solution to this problem is a voice-activated GPS system that the player can use to find specific locations, such as the game's eponymous Horizon Festival ("GPS, Festival, Autoshow"), as well as ask more generic questions ("Where's my next race? Where's my nearest event?"). Once the Kinect registers the player's request, Forza's familiar line of green arrows extends from the underbelly of the vehicle, guiding the player to their destination.

Friendships have been ruined over Dead or Alive – we'll never forgive you, Frank – but now you and Billy don't even need to consider fighting each other in Dead or Alive 5. Tag matches return, allowing two folks to go up against two other folks in a contest of might, both locally and online.

And speaking of online stuff, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi confirmed with Joystiq that the interactive lobbies seen in Dead or Alive 4 would not return in Dead or Alive 5. The reasoning behind omitting the interactive lobbies in Dead or Alive 5 is so that Team Ninja can provide the best, most stable online experience possible. Sure, that's all well and good, but ice-skating crabs.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim game director Todd Howard and his team at Bethesda Game Studios are weeks away – if things go according to plan – from releasing the game's first DLC 'Dawnguard.' Speaking with Joystiq, Howard detailed the balance between quality and timing when planning new content for its critically and commercially acclaimed RPG.

"There's this weird line between – if you do DLC too early everyone's pissed off. We have found, if you wait too long, they're pissed off," Howard laughed. "We have a very smart audience," he continued, noting that Skyrim players deserve content that adds more than just a few extra quests or features. "We do feel the pressure to make sure it fits into the game smoothly."

To ensure DLC doesn't remove players from the experience, Dawnguard won't notify players when the additional content has been purchased; players must find it for themselves.

"One of the potential negatives to like 'Joe Consumer' is they'll buy it, they'll load up Skyrim, they'll be like, 'Where is it?' Well, you gotta go find it," Howard explained. Dawnguard adds a new, detailed quest-line focusing on vampires, new weapons like crossbows, and even a Werewolf perk system.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 'Dawnguard' is currently scheduled to arrive on June 26 for the Xbox 360.

We know how Activision dropped United Front's True Crime: Hong Kong, but what we found interesting during a meeting about the game at E3 2012 is that Sleeping Dogs wasn't even created as a True Crime title to begin with.

"One misconception is we were True Crime from the get-go," said Dan Sochan, producer at United Front Games. "We were a new [intellectual property] from the get-go. Our own story, own characters and gameplay features. After working on it for a couple years, Activision decided it wanted to reboot the True Crime franchise."

Sochan explained the story, characters and features didn't change through the transitions.

"In terms of of our initial vision for the game nothing has changed. From new IP "Black Lotus," to True Crime to Sleeping Dogs, that has always remained intact."

The images we've received for Aliens: Colonial Marines at E3 2012 are rather unimpressive. Not a whole lot going on. To make up for it, we've included old galleries you may have missed from the recent past after the break.

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Danica Patrick, NASCAR racing star, is a playable character in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. This is despite being a real human person and not a cartoon hedgehog, confined monkey, or any other kind of Sega all-star.

Sega is returning the favor by sponsoring a special Sonic-themed car for Patrick to drive at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge on November 3.

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Following a demo of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 'Dawnguard' DLC, Bethesda's Todd Howard said that the game's first content will arrive in June.

"Tentatively," Howard explained, "it's coming on June 26." According to Bethesda's Lord of the Dragons, the DLC will hit that date as long as nothing goes wrong.

To ensure the DLC is ready, Bethesda is offering a beta for the Dawnguard DLC on Xbox 360. Dawnguard and Skyrim's second DLC pack is set to launch on the Xbox 360 first.

The good news: On the way to see the Elder Scrolls Online, we spotted an actual, real-life Elder Scroll. The bad news: We may have opened a portal to Oblivion and cursed all of humanity (and E3 2012 in particular) for all of eternity. The unexpected extra good news: A Daedroth just ate Ubisoft's press conference planning committee.

It must be hard to maximize your reach to gamers when there's a "3" in the title of your game. What if I've never played the first two games? How am I expected to understand all of the references and deep, established lore? It's quite the pickle for those looking to come into any established franchise without prior experience.

In the case of Lost Planet 3, it's a pretty interesting prospect. It's the third installment in a fairly polarizing series – either you love Lost Planet or you don't – from a relatively unknown developer who hasn't shipped that many games.

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Time to break out your good staff of summoning because Wizards of the Coast will launch the next installment in its Duels of the Planeswalkers series later this month. Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 will launch worldwide on June 20 for Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Steam on PC – and, for the first time, iPad.

As for pricing, it's not necessarily a given that Duels 2013 will be a $10 title – Wizards reps would not confirm pricing.