Mike Bracken's blog

If you didn't get a chance to play Resident Evil 5 on your Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 earlier this year, but you own a gaming rig, then this may be good news for you.

Capcom has announced the official release date for Resident Evil 5 on the PC. North America can start slaughtering zombies on September 15, while Europe has to wait three extra days.

The big selling point for this PC version comes in the form of 3D. Gamers will be able to experience all that Resident Evil 5 has to offer in Nvidia's GeForce 3D technology. Infected people will come right out of the screen, apparently. Even the cutscenes will be presented in 3D. The only bad news here is that you'll have to shell out for some of those fancy 3D PC glasses separately.

If you're curious about this whole 3D thing, you can download a benchmark and tech demo for the game here (you'll need all the 3D vision hardware for this to work, naturally…). If you don't have a 3D ready video card, you can still play the game in the standard mode.

Bad news for anyone hoping for another trip to the underwater utopia of Rapture this year. Shacknews is reporting that BioShock 2 has been delayed. The title has shifted from its original November 3rd street date to a much more vague "sometime in the first six months of 2010".

Once the wave of initial disappointment wears off, this might actually be for the best. Releasing Bioshock 2 in November makes sense (it's out in time for the holiday rush), but as we all know that's a window where there are too many games and not enough time to play them all. Moving it to sometime after the holidays (or even to June of 2010) gives gamers a triple A title to look forward to during what is the biggest gaming drought period of the year, and it pretty much guarantees that Take Two will sell more units as there's not much in the way of competition. Metal Gear Solid 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV released in a similar fashion and both did well. There's no reason to expect that BioShock 2 won't reap the same benefits.

That being said, it's still a bummer. I was really looking forward to duking it out with Big Sisters this November…

One of the survival horror games coming out this year that intrigues me is Dead Space: Extraction. This Wii-only title is a tie-in to Electronic Arts' hit release from late last year. Basically, it's a survival horror game set on a spaceship overrun by hideous alien monsters.

The Wii version is a stand-alone game, and it differs from its big brothers in that it's an on-rails shooter. I've said before that I'm a little disappointed by the on-rails part, but after watching this new four minute video, I'm more interested in this game than I was before.

This latest video, hosted by guys from developer Visceral Studios, highlights how the Wii controls will work in the game. It appears as though a lot of thought has been given to ensuring that players won't be just swinging their Wii-mote around like a spastic kid after a sugar bender. This is good news.

My only real concern with the controls is the idea of having to turn the Wii-mote at a 90 degree angle to use the secondary fire mode of each weapons. Seems to me that using a weapon with your wrist turned like that for an extended length of time would probably be annoying (and uncomfortable), but other than that, this title seems to be shaping up nicely.

I'll be honest…I thought this was an April Fools Day gag when I first read it.

Lars Von Trier's horror flick Antichrist inspired a lot of response at Cannes. There was that whole press conference shouting match between the filmmaker and journalists, the outrage over the sexual violence and gore, and Willem Dafoe's naked butt. Now, there's news that Antichrist might be making the craziest jump of all—to the land of videogames.

/Film brings news that developer Zentropa is planning to bring Von Trier's dark vision to PCs everywhere. The game will be retitled Eden (the name of the cabin Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg retreat to after the death of their child) and is reportedly a first person adventure title being described as a "nightmare version of Myst" (at least that's what everyone's assuming based on a translation…). Eden won't follow the narrative of the film, but Willem Dafoe will be back to voice his character from the movie. One can only hope that the gruesome imagery from the film makes it into the final version of the game.

I posted a developer's demo for Konami's Saw videogame a few days ago, but it didn't have any actual combat footage in it. Here's a different clip from GameTrailers, complete with a look at how you'll be fighting your way through and a very unpleasant surprise.

Gamers will be able to decide if they want to live or die this October.

E3's done and over, but there was so much stuff to cover that I'm still posting the things that didn't make it up in the first few days—like this teaser trailer for The Grudge.

XSEED officially announced the game for the Nintendo Wii at the show. Naturally, it's a survival horror title based on the popular Japanese film series. Director Takashi Shimizu is even onboard as a consultant to ensure that the title manages to capture the mood of his films.

Check out the very brief teaser trailer below. Ju-on: The Grudge will attempt to make you toss your Wii-mote in fear this October.

With all of the E3 craziness this week, I somehow forgot to post this footage of Left 4 Dead 2’s multiplayer in action.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out below.

My brain tells me that I should be guardedly optimistic about the prospects of an Aliens vs. Predator game (the movies haven't exactly managed to take advantage of the awesome potential of this idea…), but my heart—well, my heart's already convinced this is the greatest thing since porn.

Sega and developers Rebellion showed off the game at E3 yesterday and you can have a gander at it below.

Players will be treated to three campaigns in the game—one as a human, one as an alien, and the third as a Predator. Naturally, each race will have its own strengths and weaknesses and class balance would seem to be a key issue (if the aliens and Predator aren't fun to play, this game will not do well). Players will take control of each faction at different points in the narrative (which involves an alien temple with an angry queen, space marines, and a Predator hunting expedition).

This magical week of E3 goodness is drawing to a close (which is sad…), but that doesn't mean I have nothing left to show you before normal life resumes its relentless attempts to crush your very soul.

For example, here's Tecmo's new PSP title, Undead Knights. One common refrain over the years from gamers has been "hey, why can't we play games as the bad guy?" No one ever gives  a satisfactory answer for why this is (and to be fair, there have been some recent games where you can play as the villain), and now gamers who want to explore their dark side will have another opportunity to do it when this game eventually hits shelves.

Bioshock still stands as one of my favorite games of this generation. Its creepy atmosphere coupled with some excellent writing and narrative design make it stand out as one of those games that should be mentioned whenever the tired discussion of "games as art" pops up. To say I'm excited about the sequel is an understatement.

Here's a look at a new trailer for the game. This year's E3 has seemed to focus on great looking games that aren’t coming out until 2010, but Bioshock 2 remains on course for a November 3rd 2009 release on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.