PSP

I just tried the El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron demo available on Xbox Live. Although I've been hearing about the game for quite some time and seen loads of screenshots, seeing the game in motion is something else entirely.

GameCritics' own Trent Fingland regales us with war stories from the E3 front. Along the way we reconcile our E3 predictions, debate the future of Japanese gaming, have a serious talk about religion, and get uncomfortably inquisitive about the whereabouts of Ken Levine. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim "Death to Handhelds" Spaeth.

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Links:

• Trent Fingland's E3 Coverage
• Brandon Bales' E3 Coverage
• Peter Skerritt's E3 Coverage

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

For the final leg of my E3 adventures, I made my way back to the Square-Enix booth to watch a guided demo of the new Tomb Raider. Some have brought up issues with this new presentation of Lara Croft, where she is shown as vulnerable and inexperienced, but I think this is quite a different thing than games like Metroid: Other M and The Third Birthday.

After three consecutive nights with three hours of sleep apiece, walking into a closed meeting room at 10am and seeing Star Wars Kinect didn't seem to show much promise. After all, other sites had been less than kind to the game and the reaction during Microsoft's press conference wasn't exactly warm. When I volunteered to test the game for a group of my peers and the other members of the KmartGamer team, I didn't have high expectations… but when the demo was over and my pulse was racing, I wanted more.

If you're a console gaming fan, like I am, you probably remember where you were when the name and specifics of Nintendo's Wii follow-up were announced. I was in a Starbucks on the morning of June 7th, a few hundred feet from the Nokia Theater where Nintendo was holding its press conference. I also remember exclaiming out loud something to the effect of, "That's really what they're calling it? Wii U? No. NO!"

Dark Souls was my next destination, and I can already tell fans of Demon's Souls that this game is going to be as good as advertised. From Software has ratcheted up the difficulty; in fact, the person who demonstrated the game for me was having a difficult time staying alive himself.

The KmartGamer E3 team visit to the THQ booth had a common theme: violence. Gunplay and fisticuffs ruled the experience, and we saw some titles that will make a definite impact at retail over the coming months.

Games-wise, the wife and I are still pushing through in Hunted: the Demon’s Forge (360). A friend of mine recently made the comment that he was enjoying it, but that he would never recommend it to anyone. I'd have to say, I totally, totally agree with that.

Couldn't make it to E3 2011? Let Brandon Bales tell you everything you need to know in 30 seconds!

And so the second day of E3 begins! I had some scheduled events to hit up with fellow GameCritic Brandon Bales that day, so I tried to keep things light until it was time to hit up the Bethesda demonstrations.