We may be poor college students/unemployed college graduates and thus unable to go to E3, but through the magic of the internet we can see the big press conferences IN REAL TIME! Thus, like every other gaming site on the internet, we will be live-blogging the big press conferences. Why watch our liveblog instead of a so-called “professional” site’s? Because we’ve got Nate Gamer, dammit.

Here’s our liveblog schedule:

Monday, June 1st:
Microsoft’s Press Conference: 10:30 am PST (1:30 PM EST)
EA’s Press Conference: 2 pm PST (5 pm EST)

Tuesday, June 2nd:
Nintendo’s press conference: 9 am PST (12 pm EST)
Sony’s Press Conference: 11 am PST (2 pm EST)

E3 is, finally, right around the corner and us games journalist types are getting antsy. Because the show is slated to bring back the glitz and glam of the E3s of yore, we might finally be spared another Giant Enemy Crab or Ravi Drums incident. Of course, bringing back booth babes doesn’t necessarily mean that the games that will be unveiled this year will be anything to get excited over. Because my soul is torn between hopeful optimism and jaded pessimism, I will offer here my predictions on what the best and worst possibilities of this year’s E3 might have in store for us.
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For the past couple of weeks, a Twitterer (Twitteree?) going by the name of Game Fork has been posting not predictions, but what he claimed were actual leaks of what to expect for Microsoft’s E3 lineup.  Amongst tweets claiming that he was testing highly-anticipated titles such as Alan Wake and All-Points-Bulletin, GF has also claimed that Microsoft’s E3 lineup will include a Kojima-developed exclusive as well as a MGS4 port including a new DLC package known as “Oxide”, similar to the previous enhanced editions of MGS2 and MGS3 that were re-released.  However, it seems that one rumor from the Twitter feed has been officially debunked, as GF claimed that the next GTAIV DLC would be called Blood on a Four Leaf Clover, and would be based on Packie and his Irish friends; however, Rockstar has just announced the next DLC today, and apparently it’s been dubbed The Ballad of Gay Tony.  So, while anyone with an ounce of sense always took the Game Fork claims with a grain of salt, the fact that one of his biggest predictions is so blatantly off target casts more than a sliver of doubt on his other claims.

That’s not to say that everything GF has posted thus far is going to be nothing but a crock; several of his predictions make sense, and several (such as the Microsoft motion camera) have been bouncing around the ‘net for years.  Just don’t get your hopes up and treat it like gospel, fellow XBots.

Many of you have played one of The Behemoth’s more well-known constructions, like Castle Crashers or Alien Hominid.  I would wager, however, that few of you modern gamers are aquainted with Dad ‘n Me, a far earlier collaboration between artist Dan Paladin and Newgrounds creator Tom Fulp.

On Newgrounds, where Sturgeon’s Law is always in effect, the works of Paladin and Fulp are part of the 10% content that is worth dying for.  While you’re waiting for your XBLA remake of Turtles in Time (NSFW; odd it should be that way since it’s a link to this site), give Dad ‘n Me a shot.  It can be methadone to the heroin that is Turtles, holding you over until you can feel the potency of the real fix.

In Dad ‘n Me, players take control of a little skull-faced bruiser who’d like nothing more to visit terrible, bestial violence upon the hapless children of his neighborhood.  He’s been egged on by his father, presumably, who hails from one of this design team’s even older works, Chainsaw the Children.  Like father like son, I suppose.

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If you haven’t seen J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek yet, get off your computer, hop in your car (or on your bike) and get your ass down to the movie theater to see it. Right now. It’s one of the best movies, not to mention science fiction movies, that has come out this year. As a film, it’s gotten rave reviews from all corners. As a Star Trek film, it’s pissed off a few hardcore Trekkies due to plot issues, but that in no way should discourage you from seeing it. The casting was spot on, it had a killer soundtrack, and it even brought back old quirky lines from the original series which the audience appropriately cheered at.

Spoilers.

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Holy balls, you guys. Turtles in motherfucking Time! I can’t be the only person whose excitement for this game immediately made every drop of blood rush to the hardest damn erection this side of the Mississippi. This was THE beat-’em-up game of my childhood, and now it’s back in glorious 3D. Of course, I’m a titch concerned that this remake will bastardize my much-beloved SNES memories of the game (I have the words “prehistoric turtlesaurus” looping in my brain right now) but the benefits of a full remake far outweigh the possible pitfalls. Think of all they could do with this! Maybe they’ll add a new level? How about Splinter as an unlockable character? Jesus Dicknippling Christ, I’m pumped for this shit. What if they added–*gasp!*–4 player mode? Hell yeah, just drop twice the number of enemies on the players and it might finally beat out Castle Crashers as the best XBLA 4-player game.

Via gossipgamers

Comic unrelated to the rest of this post.

Ah, May. A month that video game bloggers/journalists dislike simply because there just isn’t too much to write about. With E3 just around the corner, most publishers and developers are holding back their best news for the expo. But hey, that doesn’t mean that video game sites are defunct right now; it just means we have to be creative.
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Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau announced earlier this week on his twitter (@Jon_Favreau) that the first still from the set of Iron Man 2 would run in USA Today soon. Well, there it is. The movie has been filming for three weeks (peppered with periodic cryptic twitter updates from Favreau) and is set for the Summer 2010 release.

The still, predictably, tells us very little. We see Tony Stark apparently in his new workshop (the new film takes place 6 months after the events of the previous). Behind him, we can see four sets of armor: the Mark I armor on the far left, the armor that he built while held captive, which Obadiah Stane later used an a reference for his Iron Monger armor, which Tony has apparently reclaimed and restored; the silver Mark II just to the right of that; the Mark III, his primary suit from the first movie, at the far right. The suit between the Mark II and III seems to be new suit, painted darker than the others, with a helmet that somewhat resembles the Iron Man from Bryan Hitch’s art in The Ultimates. Mark IV armor? Prototype? Or just another Mark III suit out of focus?

Interestingly, each suit seems to have in its chest a miniature arch reactor, the tiny piece of engineering genius that enabled Tony to power the suits and keep himself alive. Is he now mass-producing the technology?

Of course, the picture is intentionally vague. We’ll have to wait for more photos (probably at Comic-Con in the summer) to get a better idea of what’s in store for movie goers come 2010.

I’m stoked, myself.