We were promised jetpacks.  As a society.  It’s an idea as old as time, and you can read about it in old issues of Popular Mechanics.   There it is, clear as day.  And where’d they get their proof?  Well, the Bible, to be precise.  There it is at the beginning of the Book of Revelation: “Yet before the destruction of Man was to fall, the Lord said to Man, ‘Zoom around willy-nilly; childhood dreams now incarnate, packs of rockets on your backs.”  See?  So, then comes this company Airtight Games, who’s gonna make it all come true for us – at least, in the digital sense.  So, they team up with this mega-publisher called Capcom, and they set out to give us The Jetpack Game! Wait, ok: it’s called Dark Void.  Sigh; had it actually been called The Jetpack Game, I think it probably would have been ten times better.  As it stands, instead of giving everyone the game to make our deep-seated techno-fancies come true, Dark Void rockets its way into the low-slung ceiling of mediocrity.  More after the jump:

Another E3 has come and gone, and this year, luckily was a bit more fun than last.  Yep, bigger booths and actual babes go a long way in sprucing up the proceedings.  The announcements made were about as fun, while nothing completely revolutionary was revealed.  Let’s take a look at what we got.

MICROSOFT

The flashiest announcement came from Microsoft in the form of their new “controller-free” peripheral, Project Natal.  The name will surely change, but it’s essentially a camera that tracks precision motion, as well as patterns, such as facial features.  This allows for a lot of speculation about how the camera might be used, but could end up being just a lot of “Imagineering” (as they say over at Disney).  While it will surely track motion, we would warn any interested parties that the preview video for the device that’s floating around the ‘net epresents only ideas at this point.  Yes, gaming guru, Peter Molyneux has shown the facial recognition to work in his behind-closed-doors demo of his new MILO, the majority of the fine mechanics of the machine have yet to be demonstrated.  Take it all with a grain of salt, of course, as with any new gaming peripheral – let’s not forget how gaga we went over the Nintendo Wii’s controls, and that some of its potential has still yet to be realized…

E3 is too much for one man.

Today marks my second-ever year at E3, and let’s just say that this show rocks you.  It rocks you something good.  Even last year’s convention – which everyone told me was ridiculously tame compared to previous years – was overwhelming.  This year’s, which has been heralded as a near ‘return to form,’ is one day gone, and it was bonkers.  There are simply oodles and oodles of content.  So, let’s jump right into what we were able to focus our attention on for more than sixty seconds!

After the jump, you can read what I thought about Dark Void, Resident Evil: Darkside Chrinicles, Lost Plant 2, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Lost Planet 2:

If you’ve seen Fox’s recent film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or you’ve been talked out of seeing it by friends, or by this website, chances are you have a low opinion of the recent travails of one of Marvel Comics’ best-loved characters.  Well, let this reviewer tell you now that the game X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the Uncaged Edition for your Xbox 360 or PS3 ) is far more worthwhile than its cinematic counterpart.  Maybe its logic and methodology are the same, but the game is far more gleefully gruesome, and far, far more fun.

Started about two-and-a-half years ago by the competent Raven Software, XO:W (hereafter, “Wolverine” ) clearly shows an excellent amount of polish.  Raven, the makers of last generation’s X-Men Legends series and the more recent Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, got a hold of the Wolverine license, and were itching to “do it right.”