Gamertell

As if it needed any more support, Rock Band was named the Best of Show of E3 2007 by the Game Critics Awards.

The music sim game also won for best peripheral and best social/casual/puzzle game (I don’t quit get that last one, but I wasn’t asked to vote). Other winners include LittleBigPlanet (PS3) for Best Original Game, Mass Effect (Xbox 360) as Best Console Game, Crysis for Best PC Game and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) for Best handheld Game.

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After its fun and obnoxious E3 2007 appearance referred to as EIEIO (Expo for Interactive Entertainment Independent and Original), including an official funeral for the event, Gamecock has hit my radar hard and keeps on coming.

The latest visual assault is in the form of a semi-scandalous video titled “Fury: Life is What Happens While You’re Level Grinding,“ promoting its upcoming game Fury.

Click through to view the video and for info on getting in on the beta…

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Majesco’s Fall 2007 lineup consists primarily of DS titles, with a couple Wii releases and a first for Majexco, an Xbox 360 game.

Most of the DS releases seem to target kids, with titles that include Nancy Drew and Holly Hobbie, with only one war game being the main exception. The Wii titles, however, are an old school 2D shooter and a collection of arcade style games. The 360 game looks to be a button smashing sword game but, oddly enough, they promote the online aspects as being the Leaderboard and viewable profiles. Unfortunately, nothing is mentioned about online multilayer modes. look like no love for Sony from Majesco this season, either.

Click through for a list of all the games with descriptions…

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Disney announced the first title for their new DGamer technology – The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, at E3 2007. The DS title will be accompanied by versions on the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, and PC in May 2008.

The game is based on the upcoming sequel to the original The Chronicles of Narnia (also available for just about every platform). The story begins where the original film leaves off and features 20 playable characters with unique weapons and abilities. Also featured is a unique drop-in/drop-out two-player mode that works both online or offline.

The new game will launch the DGamer online community, which Disney promises will include chat, trade, and other features through the Nintendo WI-FI connection. DGamer will be included in every new Disney DS game starting in May 2008, so if Narnia isn’t your game, you can still take advantage of the new network. That is, if you’re into Disney princesses.

Read [VGBlogger] Also Read [QJ]

• Rock Band named best of E3 2007 by Game Critics Awards
• Disney expands its games division
• Disney Interactive shows its E3 2008 lineup

Disney Interactive announced the sequel to action-RPG DS title Spectrobes at E3 2007. Developed by Jupiter Corp, the new title will continue the adventures of Rallen and Jeena, the space cops sent to investigate the mysterious fossilized “spectrobes” in the original game. The E3 trailer also hinted at a new enemy, known as “Krux”

The sequel expands upon the original’s Pokemon-style creature collection, evolution, battling and online swapping gameplay by allowing players to take control of both Jeena and Rallen and features DGamer compatibility. The release date is set for sometime in 2008.

Considering that the original title just came out (in March, 2007), it looks like the Spectrobes series is well on its way to franchise heaven. If Jupiter Corp can spice up a few features from the (generally well-received) first game, like the excavation/fossil collection interface, they might have a winner on their hands.

Read [Gamershell] Also Read [Play]

• Rock Band named best of E3 2007 by Game Critics Awards
• Disney expands its games division
• Disney Interactive shows its E3 2008 lineup

Regardless of what you think about the revamped E3, this was still a big yea for announcements. Be it new games, new peripherals, redesigned gear or just updates on the games announced last year, E3 2007 was an exciting potpourri of information.

Click through for the Gamertell writers’ takes on a few of the most anticipated things announced at E3 2007…

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Among the announcements of DGamer and a slew of casual games aimed for younger gamers, Disney Interactive announced the release date for next-gen FPS Turok at the company’s E3 2007 presentation. The Propaganda Games development is set to hit the PS3 and Xbox 360 February 5, 2008.

Turok is something of a re-imagining of the famous N64 FPS. The game stars Joseph Turok, a black ops commando who has been sent to a strange dinosaur-infested planet to find his mentor Roland Kane. Story has never been a particularly strong suit in the Turok series ...

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You remember the first band you started, way back in high school. You got your best friend’s mom to buy a drum-kit and you managed to get a hold of a cheap Stratocaster spin-off made in Mexico. Everything seemed perfect and you were ready to take the music world by storm…except you couldn’t find a bass player to save your life. Not even Gary would play bass for you, the kid who nobody liked because he smelled funny. And that was the end of your short lived musical career. Sigh.

Well, now you can recruit your band members from an online community of more than seven million players on Xbox Live, and if you can’t find someone to join your band out of a crowd that size then ...

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EA also showed off co-op action title Army of Two recently (July 11, 2007) as part of their E3 line-up. The PS3 and 360 title, developed by EA Montreal, is slated for release Winter 2007 and features a unique, “all-co-op, all the time” take on classic action-combat gameplay.

The biggest feature displayed at E3 was the aggrometer, a mechanic that works by shifting the balance fluidly between players. As one player shoots, he builds up agro, both shifting enemy attention to him and allowing him to pull off special agro moves (including the speedy advanced agro mode, and near-invulnerability in back to back mode). Essentially, this mechanic makes it all the more important for the two players to work together efficiently, making use of the attention shifts to surprise and attack enemies.

Army of Two is looking great, and the addition of the aggrometer is a welcome, balancing touch. It looks like the heyday of buddy-commando games like Contra and Double Dragon might just get revived.

Read [Play] Also Read [Crave]

• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray
• Boom Blox 2 confirmed
• How to get your Mac to talk to your PS3

EA showcased crash-tastic racer Burnout Paradise recently (July 11, 2007), as part of the company’s impressive E3 lineup. The Criterion studios developed title is slated for PS3 and Xbox 360 releases, and features a huge open world in which players trigger events and races naturally, through his/her actions. The damage system – a mainstay of the Burnout series, has been redone, and will now be cumulative – players can still drive half-wrecked cars until there’s nothing left to crash.

One of the coolest features for the PS3 version is Playstation Eye integration for multiplayer games – every time you crash, the game takes a picture of you and sends it to the other racers. It’s a small, but nonetheless hilarious touch. Likewise, the overhauled gameplay (having an open world where events are triggered at will as opposed to a more formal system), and the ability to enter “crash mode” at any time (by hitting the L1 and R1 triggers) all add up to a new and improved Burnout.

Read [Destructoid] Read [TheBBPSs]

• Gamertell Review: Dead Space Downfall on DVD, Blu-ray
• Boom Blox 2 confirmed
• How to get your Mac to talk to your PS3