Eric Layman

James Cameron’s Avatar is, arguably, the most anticipated movie coming out of Hollywood. The man who created Terminator and Aliens and, well, yes, Titanic has finally returned to conventional cinema with Avatar, a sweeping sci fi epic that has, we’re told, been gestating and waiting for appropriate technology for the last fifteen years. The producer, Jon Landau, told us that Avatar was the first f...[Read More]

I thought King of Kong was a fine film. Reigning Donkey Kong high score champion Billy Mitchell was presented as an exceptional dastardly fiend, and the challenger, everyman Steve Wiebe, won hearts of thousands with his earnest sense of dedication. The authenticity may be disputed, but, regardless, the documentary did a fantastic job of creating characters and maintaining interest.  Thanks to G4, ...[Read More]

I walked into Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles with, probably for the better, never having played any non numbered entry in the Resident Evil series. Anything of the mainline typically hasn’t been of the most stellar quality, but I remember 2007’s Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles doing reasonably well, and not too bad critically either. Still, I never played it, so I started fresh with DC....[Read More]

Despite its popularity, I had never actually played a single entry in the Monster Hunter franchise. I had seen the outrageous line at the Tokyo Game Show and was well aware that it’s basically selling the PSP in Japan, but, for whatever reason, it never really collected my interest. Regardless, I elected to give it a show during my stop by Capcom this afternoon. In my demo I was paired with three ...[Read More]

So, Gran Turismo on PSP exists. After going dormant for what seemed like an eternity, the game reemerged this afternoon at Sony’s press conference to thunderous glee. I was skeptical of the purported stats (over 700 cars and a ridiculous number of tracks) and the translation to the PSP, but, thus far, everything seemed to play as it should. Only one track and one car were available in the demo, bu...[Read More]

Odin Sphere was one in a million. I never thought that in this generation of under-stylized brown filters and less-than-inspired art direction, anyone could or would develop a wildly imaginative 2D side scroller. Dreams are occasionally answered and, as we all found out In 2007, Vanillaware’s 2007 offering, Odin Sphere, turned the action RPG genre on its heels and slapped next gen purists right in...[Read More]

Tekken is my fighting game of choice. Since 1996, Namco’s premier fighting has been my go-to brawler for versus play. 3 destroyed my life in highschool, Tag ruined my freshman year of college, and 4 dumbed my major down to the near-worthless BA in Communication. Tekken is laced in my gaming DNA, and I was happy to finally see Tekken 6 make its way stateside. I had played it in Tokyo before, but no...[Read More]

It took a while for Ubisoft’s press conference to find its groove, but after a series of speeches about convergence and market innovation, Ubisoft finally kicked things off properly by pulling acclaimed director James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens) out of the ether to discuss his widely anticipated film, Avatar, and the game that’s being simultaneously developed alongside it. Cameron adm...[Read More]

The Metal Gear grab was nothing short of spellbinding. I'm nearly positive it's not exclusive and, by default, I'm also pretty sure we'll see actual footage or a deeper look at the game at Sony's conference tomorrow, but, as far as spine tingling, e3 press conference lore, Microsoft nailed it by bringing a smiling Hideo Kojima on stage. The fact that it's apparently a Raiden game doesn't hurt eith...[Read More]

LOS ANGELES — June 1, 2009 — Rock out. Duck and cover. Shift into overdrive. On the eve of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft Corp. today made it perfectly clear: No matter who you are or what games you crave, Xbox 360 is the only gaming and entertainment console for you. At a time when, according to NPD Group Inc., nearly seven in 10 consumers plan to spend the same or more on vide...[Read More]

What’s more exciting than E3? Speculatiing about E3, of course. Okay so that isn’t nearly as much fun, but when you’ve just completed inFamous and are too afraid to delve into a new game before the impending trip to Los Angeles in a few days, there isn’t much else to do. What follows is a (95%) off the top of my head summery of what I’m hoping to see or get my hands on at E3 2009.