Anyway, Jeff Rubenstein and I decided to stop by the Warner Brother Interactive booth at the 2010 E3 Expo to check out the new Mortal Kombat. I met with Steve Beran, a longtime MK series veteran and director of art for the newly named Netherrealm Studios. We talked about the new vision for the gory brawler, got a sneak peek at the new Fatalities and stereoscopic 3D support, and went hands-on for a few matches.

First, though, check out the E3 announce trailer below for a quick look at Mortal Kombat’s visual style, fighting mechanics, and the new “X-ray” attacks.

Mortal Kombat is a re-imagining of the events of the first three games (“the fan favorites” according to Beran) meaning you’ll see lots of familiar faces: ninja specter Scorpion, his rival Sub-Zero, cybernetic assassin Sektor, misshapen clone Mileena, and Hollywood action star Johnny Cage have all made the cut. All told, Mortal Kombat will feature at least 24 fighters — a mix of old favorites as well as newcomers — with more on the way post-launch via PSN downloadable content.

Mortal Kombat will return to the 2D, juggle-centric fighting style popularized by the earlier titles, but the core fighting mechanics are seeing modern, HD enhancements. Most obvious are the devastating new “X-ray” attacks. The camera sweeps in to show the victim’s innards as the aggressor snaps, cracks, and gouges away. “Ribs shatter, jaws break, teeth pop out,” Beran elaborated. “It’s one of the things we’re most excited about.” What’s more, each character possesses unique-looking innards, meaning that Reptile’s skeleton looks different than Mileena’s, Sektor’s guts look appropriately cybernetic, and so on.

The gruesome “X-ray” attacks are the most dramatic example of Mortal Kombat’s new Super meter, which builds in power as you inflict and absorb damage during each match. A well-timed “X-ray” attack can wipe out nearly half an opponent’s life bar, particularly when chained into another juggle combo. “X-ray” attacks require a full Super meter but, at lower levels, the Super meter will also enable you to power-up a character’s special move for extra damage and beneficial effects, or swap in a tag-team partner mid-combo for a brutal two-man juggle. How you best leverage the Super meter is up to you.

Then there are the Fatalities, the most recognizable and controversial element in any Mortal Kombat title. “In this game,” Beran told me, “we starting thinking about the Fatalities much earlier.” It shows. The new Fatalities are ghoulishly inventive: Kung Lao dragging his victim through his buzzsaw-like bladed hat, Reptile giving a venom-spewing french kiss, and Scorpion slicing and dicing with his katana will make longtime series fans quiver with delight.

Oh, I also donned a pair of 3D glasses in order to experience a video of a Mortal Kombat match running in stereoscopic 3D on the PS3. The fighting genre seems to be a good fit for 3D: the detailed characters, sparkling projectiles, and gushing bodily fluids popped off the screen at a smooth 60 frames per second.

Mortal Kombat will hit the PS3 in 2011, with online play being a major focus. What else would you like to know about Mortal Kombat? Ask away in the comments, and I’ll do my best to track down the answer.

All I know is, I played a game that took me back to my gaming childhood: 8-bit beat’em ups with brightly colored sprites, old-school music, and couch co-op. And when I loved it, I wasn’t alone; Scott Pilgrim vs the World pulled in awards and nominations from sites like 1UP, Gamespot, IGN and Joystiq, and was one of the most talked about games of the show.

The key thing to note: Scott Pilgrim vs The World is debuting exclusively on PlayStation Network, and that you’ll be playing it in just about a month: August 10th.

You’ll be seeing a lot more about Scott Pilgrim vs The World here on the PlayStation.Blog in the coming weeks, including updates from Comic-Con and a post directly from Anamanaguchi, the famed chiptune band who behind the game’s sountrack.

Set in a massive open world teeming with animal life, Two Worlds II is an RPG that’s intensely focused on player freedom. You won’t find rigid character classes like “Barbarian” or “Thief.” Instead, you’ll build a custom class by assigning skill points across a wide range of talents: assassination, melee combat, trade, lockpicking, and magic to name just a few. Want to combine the spell-casting acumen of a Wizard with the brute melee force of a Warrior? No problem: just assign your skill and stat points accordingly. You use the directional pad to swap quickly between your gear loadouts, so you could soften up an enemy with magic while wearing your spell-boosting equipment, then instantly swap to your heavy armor and axe to dash in and finish the job.

Magic spells are similarly dynamic and customizable (are you sensing a theme here?). Rather than find and assign a typical “Fireball” spell, for example, you can mix and match various magic traits (in the form of cards) to achieve a witches’ brew of effects. In my demonstration, I saw the player combine a fire card, a multi-shot card, a heat-seeking card, a summon card, and a reflection card to create a wicked spell that flung bouncing, splitting, heat-seeking, flaming projectiles that spawned demonic enemies on impact. Not bad, eh? Two Worlds II will contain a vast number of spell combinations – I overheard “10 to the 16th power” – and might draw comparisons to Borderlands’ similarly monstrous weapon arsenal.

The online mode is expansive, with eight-player PvP duels (ranging from 4v4 to free for all bloodbaths), a separate co-op campaign that supports eight players as well as a unique quest and environments, and a “Village” mode where you can grow and evolve your own fantasy-RPG city. In the Village mode, you’ll be able to invite your PSN friends to visit your town and share their specific talents with your townspeople, be it leather crafting or weaponsmithing. Guild support for online play is also a go.

Two Worlds II runs on the Grace engine, and is highly optimized for the PS3 hardware and DualShock 3 controls – a major departure from its predecessor’s PC focus. If you have questions about Two Worlds II, let me know in the comments and I’ll try to shed more light on my experiences with the game.

With E3 behind us, I’d like to take a minute to recap the great feedback we’ve received about Kratos’ newest adventure on PSP and PSPgo. I’m thrilled to report that God of War: Ghost of Sparta has received nine “Best of E3…” awards, along with 3 nominations. Thanks again to our friends in the media for all of your support. We’re extremely appreciative and are looking forward to showing you more of this epic journey as we move closer to our release.

Here’s a quick list of our E3 accolades…

Awards:

• Game Critics — Best Handheld Game (WINNER)
• Kotaku.com — Best PSP Game (WINNER)
• X-Play & G4tv.com — Best Handheld Game (WINNER)
• Machinima.com — Best Handheld Game (WINNER)
• GameTrailers.com — Best PSP Game (WINNER)
• GameSpy.com — PSP Game of Show (WINNER)
• Game Informer — Best Handheld Game (WINNER)
• IGN.com — Best PSP Game (WINNER)
• Ripten.com – Best PSP Game (WINNER)

Nominations:

• GameSpot.com — Best PSP Game (NOMINEE)
• 1UP.com — Best PSP Game (NOMINEE)
• GameRevolution.com — Best Handheld Game Show (NOMINEE)

For those who haven’t seen our E3 teaser trailer yet, give it watch. And for those who have, here’s a clip of gameplay footage we showed at E3 to give you a taste of the action.

Things to look out for: Frawlz and Dave from Sarcastic Gamer, Mr. Destructoid, Hiphopgamer, longtime PS Blog commenter Delriach, Hot Shots US Producer Chris Hinojosa-Miranda, Hiphopgamer’s championship belt, Rey Gutierrez’ awesome PlayStation tat, and yours truly, tired, sweaty, and hopped up on a cocktail of caffeine and adrenaline.

Were you there? Did you see yourself?

Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip is now available on UMD and PlayStation Store download for $19.99. In true Hot Shots form, it’s also really addictive.

I sat in on a demonstration of Spec Ops: The Line at the 2010 E3 Expo, and learned more about the game’s improvisational combat and tense atmosphere, as well as the difficult decisions you’ll face as a Delta Force squad leader.

The story finds inspiration in the film Apocalypse Now. As Delta Force Captain Martin Walker, your team ventures into the Dubai wastes to track down a distress signal from Colonel John Konrad, who went AWOL following the sandstorms. The fate of Col. Konrad and his men will be revealed as you play, but if you’ve seen Apocalypse Now, you might have some clues about the dark territory this tale will explore.

Post-apocalyptic imagery aside, sand plays a key role in The Line’s action mechanics. During the third-person shootouts, you can target barricades and barriers to unleash sand avalanches on top of nearby enemies. Enemies can also exploit the sand traps, so it will pay to keep a close eye on the treacherous, ever-shifting terrain. At times, the action will migrate into the tomb-like skyscrapers that lay beneath Dubai’s suffocating sand dunes. These scenarios are tense and atmospheric, veering closer to survival-horror territory as Cpt. Walker and his men try to piece together the bigger picture while fending off surprise attacks from squatters and survivalists who have reclaimed the ruined city.

In firefights, Cpt. Walker can issue commands (flank, advance) to his Delta Force squad mates — though the developers promise that the computer-controlled allies can easily take care of themselves if you’d rather focus on the dirty work. Combat is up close and visceral, with a large arsenal of high-powered military shotguns, rifles, and carbines at your disposal.

Other surprises abound, such as a white phosphorus attack on Cpt. Walker’s team that sets an entire city block ablaze and sends fireballs drifting lazily through the air. Your decision-making prowess will also be put to the test during the game. In one scene I saw, Cpt. Walker had to choose between interrupting the execution of an ally or holding fire in order to conceal his presence and succeed in a larger objective. Choosing between what’s “moral” and what’s “necessary” will be a reoccurring theme in Spec Ops: The Line, meaning that your gameplay decisions will have a direct outcome on the characters, relationships, and outcomes of the game. And yes, there will be multiple endings.

Spec Ops: The Line hits the PS3 in 2011 and will support multiplayer features, though specifics aren’t public yet. If you have questions about the game, ask away in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Majin’s fantasy world looks highly stylized, with “shadowy, storybook visuals” in the words of Namco Bandai producer Daisuke Uchiyama. According to Uchiyama, the team wanted to create “something everybody can relate to…something familiar, nostalgic.” See Majin in motion below and judge for yourself.

You play as Tepeu, a mysterious thief who possess the ability to communicate with animals. Encroaching into a “forsaken kingdom” overtaken by a dark force, Tepeu comes across an imprisoned golem-like creature — called a Majin — and frees him. Named Teotle, the Majin follows the thief out of gratitude, thus forming an unlikely alliance against the murky forces of the forsaken kingdom. Majin’s gameplay always focuses on the symbiotic pair of the powerful Teotle and the nimble Tepeu. If you played BioShock, you can think of the slow, powerful Teotle as a Big Daddy and the nimble Tepeu as a Little Sister. That is, if Little Sisters were known for swordsmanship and acrobatics. Or having a Y chromosome, but I digress…

Tepeu and Teotle need to scratch each other’s backs frequently in order to survive encounters with the evils of the forsaken kingdom. In combat, you’ll face armies of tar-like creatures that will quickly overrun your spry thief. Luckily, the powerful Majin can bowl these guys over effortlessly and give you a chance to land a lightning-quick final strike with Tepeu. You’ll need to help out the Majin sometimes, too, by knocking snarling dogs off its back and fetching fat, revitalizing “power fruit” when it’s hurt. Mmmm…power fruit.

Though you don’t directly control the towering Majin, you can issue broad commands easily via a radial menu and the Majin does the rest auto-magically. During puzzle sequences, the Majin will respond to your orders contextually. Order it to “Crouch” and you’ll be able to jump onto its massive shoulders to reach high places; order it to “Act” and it might spew fire-breath to light your bomb’s fuse so you can blow a hole in a wall. Sometimes, the enemy hordes may be too much for even the rough-and-tumble Majin, so you’ll need to use the environment in creative ways, such as ordering the Majin to push a crumbling wall onto an enemy mob.

Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom is currently scheduled for late 2010. What do you think of the art style and the two-character symbiotic gameplay? Leave your impressions and questions in the comments, and I’ll try to shed some light.

We caught up with the creative director of Dead Space 2, Visceral Games’ Wright Bagwell, to learn more about the game’s gargantuan new setting, new enemies including the Tripod and the Pack, and new combat abilities including the Javelin gun. Watch our interview below to learn more.

Notably, Dead Space 2 will feature a bigger, deeper universe than the first game. No longer stranded on a dinky deep-space mining station, Clarke now prowls a labyrinthine interstellar complex called “The Sprawl,” comprised of hospitals, schools, churches, and unspeakable things that go bump in the night. Visceral Games has confirmed that the Church of Unitology, the cult-like Necromorph worshippers introduced at the conclusion of Dead Space, will play a far more direct role in this sequel. Naturally, Visceral Games is keeping its lips tightly sealed on the specifics of their involvement, but we can’t imagine it’s going to end well.

Dead Space 2 arrives on the PS3 in early 2011. At the 2010 E3 Expo, EA announced that the limited edition of Dead Space 2 on the PS3 will include Dead Space: Extraction with full support for PlayStation Move and Trophies.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is one of the most visually striking games I played at E3. It’s developed by Ninja Theory of Heavenly Sword fame and the story is written by Alex Garland, author of The Beach and the scriptwriter behind 28 Days Later. It also features the acting and directorial talents of Andy Serkis.

It’s one of the games I’m most looking forward to this year so at E3, Jeff Rubenstein was kind enough to stay behind the camera while I spoke to the game’s creative director, Tam Antoniades.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West will be available on PS3 this Autumn.

Fortunately, the fact that he wasn’t starstruck allowed him to focus on the game itself. Have at it, James:

Dead Rising 2 is a zombie game with its tongue hanging out of its cheek. You control Chuck Greene, a motorcross champion trapped in a zombie apocalypse in the fictional Fortune City, which is loosely based on Las Vegas. After tearing through a few hundred zombies with a pair of chainsaws attached to a canoe paddle, I lurched over to Capcom’s Mike Schmitt and asked a few questions.

What kind of story is there in Dead Rising 2?

“Chuck is competing in a gameshow called Terror is Reality in order to earn some money and cure his daughter, who has been bitten by a zombie. That’s his main motivation but there’s also a conspiracy against him, with people blaming him for the zombie outbreak at the beginning of the game.”

Given that the story allows for multiple paths and endings, how many unique playthroughs are possible?

“I don’t know the final count but there are multiple endings and we definitely want people to go back and keep playing, because levelling Chuck up opens up new areas and things to do.”

I’ve had some fun here combining weapons; how many combinations are there?

“Again, we haven’t given out an exact number but it’s a lot – dozens and dozens. We want people to search for combo cards and just try putting stuff together at random. Combining weapons is some of the most fun that can be had in the game, as far as we’re concerned, and combination weapons give you double PP, allowing you to level up much quicker.”

What’s your favourite combination?

“My favourite is the Freedom Bear. If you take a jumbo teddy bear and combine it with a machine gun, it turns into a sentry with a Rambo headband that you can place in congested areas, and it will mow down zombies with machine gun fire for what seems like hours.”

Is the co-operative gameplay integrated into the story?

“Your friends can jump into your game at any point and if you want to play co-operatively from start to finish, then you can do that. The host player controls things like saving but whoever jumps in can carry PP and Combo Cards over to their own game. Playing with friends is particularly useful for things like boss fights and it is fun to just mess around.”

Do you also have competitive multiplayer?

“Yes, we have a four player versus mode which plays off the Terror is Reality theme. There are ten different events to play, including one where you’re all riding motorcycles with chainsaws attached to the handlebars and it’s a race to see who can kill the most zombies before the time runs out.”

Finally, what do you want people to feel when they play Dead Rising 2?

“Excitement… the feeling that you want to keep playing because you don’t know what to expect. I really want people to pick up on the humour. A lot of zombie games are so serious but Dead Rising 2 is about the ridiculous predicament Chuck finds himself in and the way that you’re able to humiliate zombies and use anything as a weapon makes it comical.”

Also, James, Group C champions! USA! USA!