E3 2006 console gaming - PS2

Eidos is a publishing house revitalized. Tomb Raider: Legend is the comeback story of the year, and the company's E3 titles look to continue the momentum. Reservoir Dogs is a title that's very reminiscent of one of last year's most pleasant surprises: Rockstar Games' The Warriors. It's based on a rather old license--almost 15 years, at this point- ... Read more
Activision secured its reputation with comic book fans by bringing everyone's favorite mutants to life in the action RPG titles X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends 2. If a dozen or so superheroes was good, the thinking goes, then 50-plus comic book characters must be great--and the upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance brings together a huge roster of her ... Read more
Logitech has introduced two new steering wheel peripherals: the high-end G25 Racing Wheel for PC and PS2, and the DriveFX Axial Feedback Wheel for Xbox 360. The G25 is an elaborate peripheral that consists of three sections: the wheel itself, a six-speed gearshift, and a weighted foot pedal base that sports an accelerator, a brake, and a clutch. Th ... Read more
The biggest news from Square Enix at E3 is that Final Fantasy XIII is being developed. The role-playing game will have three different versions: two for the PS3 and one for cell phones. Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 will be a traditional FF-series role-playing game, while Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be a more action-oriented adventure. Final Fa ... Read more
To say this isn't Namco's--or as it's called now, Namcobandai's--E3 on the console front is a bit of an understatement. Namco's lineup of roughly a dozen games can be broken down into three categories: mech-based games, cartoon licenses, and substandard racers. The best Namcobandai console title is, surprisingly, a Mario Kart rip-off called Pac-M ... Read more
Capcom hasn't thrown any curveballs this E3, but it's still churning out interesting games, including two big Xbox 360 titles that should put some kick into the next-gen platform's not-so-spectacular game library. Lost Planet is a sci-fi shooter where the player must fight for his life on a harsh icy wasteland of a planet. It might seem like a sta ... Read more
At first glance, the two biggest console titles at EA's booth seem to be par for the course for a company that's often derided for unoriginality. One could argue that Army of Two is just another of the countless futuristic war shooters--as an aside, where's my Revolutionary War FPS?--while Superman is yet another licensed game set to suck alongside ... Read more
Unlike its currently available console cousins, the six-year-old PlayStation 2 has quite a commanding presence on this year's show floor. As a point of comparison, the PS2 has nearly the same amount of real estate as the PlayStation 3 and the PSP, while Nintendo's GameCube and Microsoft's original Xbox are nowhere to be found within each manufactur ... Read more
Bethesda Softworks may be hush-hush about Fallout 3 this year, but the company still has a ton of things to say about its upcoming titles, Star Trek Legacy and Pirates of the Carribean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow. TV and movie tie-ins tend to be mediocre at best, but these two games just might earn the coveted title of Surprisingly Good Licensed Ga ... Read more
The quirky, left-field hit Lego Star Wars has spawned a sequel, and the imaginatively titled Lego Star Wars II offers more of the same third-person action/puzzle-solving fun as the original. Concentrating on the first three Stars Wars films--which actually take place after the second three, if you're keeping count--the game offers Lego versions of ... Read more
VR still hasn't gone mainstream, but certain companies are certainly trying their hardest. eMagin's Z800 3DVisor gives gamers their own Lawnmower Man-esque head-mounted display, with twin OLED displays and a gyroscopic system that essentially turns the player's head into a giant mouse. Look up and the game aims up, look down and it aims down, make ... Read more
After an inauspicious debut for the PlayStation 3 at E3 2005, where the system's unsubstantiated "gameplay" footage was largely overlooked in favor of the Xbox 360's playable wares, Sony should be more forthcoming in providing information and demos of the PS3 in action at E3 2006. The company revealed quite a bit of information at a March press eve ... Read more