A pleasent surprise came from Capcom today with their announcement of Lost Planet 3. The Lost Planet series was created by Kenji Oguro, and never really reached the same popularity as Capcom's other franchises, such as Devil May Cry or Street Fighter. However, Lost Planet 1 and 2 were very solid games; the former was an early next-gen title that really showed off the power hardware. Lost Planet 2 came out years later, and focused on large scale coop battles and multiplayer. This time, the game is a prequel to the first one, and it brings back the original game's barren, arctic environments. In addition, Capcom has said that the series' mechs are returning, and that your character will be able to enter and leave his mech at anytime throughout most of the game. With an emphasis on story for singleplayer and a full multiplayer suite, it seems like Capcom is trying their best to make the biggest, most complete Lost Planet game. Lost Planet 3 is being directed by Kenji Oguro, and devloped at Spark Unlimited, a western studio. The game will be released in 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Resident Evil 6 (or Biohazard 6) has been announced after a long time of speculation! It's coming out for PS3 and 360 on November 20th, 2012, and for PC at a later time. A new trailer has been revealed, revealing that the main characters are Leon Kennedy (the main character from RE4) and Chris Redfield (the main character from RE5) are both starring in this new game. Leon will be stationed in the USA, and Chris in China, working together to control a new outbreak. Check out the trailer after the jump.

The awfully embarrassing Spike TV Video Game Awards aired this weekend, complete with a full set of announcements to actually get people to care. Hideo Kojima appeared on stage at the very end of the show in order to reveal new information about the long-awaited Metal Gear spinoff game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. That's right, the subtitle is revengeance. All jokes aside, the game looks really good, and it's being developed by Platinum Games, the geniuses behind Bayonetta and Vanquish.

Check out the trailer below the jump, courtesy of Gametrailers.

One of my favorite parts of New York Comic Con was the section maintained by Rockstar Games. Rockstar held giant booth located near one of the entrances, decorated in Max Payne artwork. In addition to playing their tablet version of Grand Theft Auto 3, we were given the pleasure of watching a press showcasing of Max Payne 3. I was very impressed.

Catherine is the latest game from Atlus, and is by far their most original and ambitious project since Persona 3. It's a story driven puzzle game, if you can imagine that, but it contains so much of the charm Atlus is known for, that fans will feel right at home from the start. The game tells the story of Vincent Brooks, a simple man who has a job, a girlfriend, and a bunch of friends to go drinking with. His girlfriend begins to question whether their relationship is moving forward, implying she wishes to be married. While all of this is happening, Vincent meets a girl at the bar, and suddenly wakes up in bed with her the next morning. On top of his new burden, rumors are floating around about young men who wake up mysteriously dead. Vincent begins having nightmares about climbing complex walls of blocks, occasionally running away from morbid creatures. While it may strike you as a strange plot for a video game, it's extremely well written, well paced, and it leaves you caring about the characters from the start, despite the game being a fraction of the length of the brand's other games.

The gameplay in Catherine is split into two portions. The game is split up into days, similar to the Persona series, and each day includes a different series of events, fleshed out through cutscenes both animated, and in-game. After the cutscenes end, usually at the end of the day, Vincent is at the Stray Sheep bar, drinking with his buddies. This is the first part of the gameplay. Vincent is able to talk to his friends, as well as strangers who come to the bar almost every night. They come at different times, so talking to some may mean missing the conversations of others. Each character in the bar has their own story, and you can only learn about it if you speak to them often. Vincent also receives text messages while at the bar, and the player can respond to them using different dialogue options.

Many of the dialogue options in Catherine lead to a change in Vincent's morality meter, which ultimately decides the ending you will receive. The second portion of gameplay involves Vincent's dreams, where the puzzles take place. Vincent must climb a series of puzzles every night, usually ending in one that involves running away from a boss. The gameplay here can get extremely difficult on the normal and hard difficulties. The normal difficulty, however, allows you to undo your actions, albeit limited to about 9 times per section. In these portions, the player has to push and pull blocks to form pathways up to the top of each level. The blocks defy gravity and connect at their edges, and there are some special blocks like ice blocks, bomb blocks, and spike traps. Vincent can only climb up one block unless he is augmented by special items. He can also hang from blocks, which allows him to travel around the puzzles. These portions are really well designed, and in the later stages can be extremely frustrating, but satisfying to finish.

There are a few problems, however. You can't really see the back of the puzzle, which can be frustrating since Vincent's controls reverse when he's on the other side. Also, checkpoints make the game a bit easier, as you can respawn there when you retry, but in one case in a later boss level, I reached the checkpoint as the blocks under me were about to fall, leaving me forced to restart the level. Another thing, which really isn't a problem but would have saved a lot of frustration (especially in hard mode) is that the game doesn't tell you if you're out of possible moves. But like I said, this isn't exactly a problem, but more so a design decision. Also, some of the morality meter questions are unclear, and neither of the options seem to be good or bad, but there's usually another opportunity to get your moral points back.

The game was developed by the Persona team at Atlus, so it retains much of the same art style and morbid themes that the Persona series is famous for. This was an excellent choice by them, since that style fits Catherine so conveniently. The music was done by Persona composer Shoji Meguro, and is a crazy mix between pop, jazz, hip hop, and classical. Amongst the original tracks, there are rearrangements of classic classical scores, from composers, such as Gustav Holst, and Frederic Chopin. It's a very nice soundtrack. Overall, the presentation is unmatched by most games on the market today.

Catherine feels like it was made with a lot of love. The presentation is excellent, the gameplay is very original, and the plot is genuinely interesting. Despite the handful of problems it has, it's a must have game for anyone, and an experience you won't soon forget.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Earlier today, Valve Software and Hidden Path Entertainment announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the PC, PS3, 360, and Mac platforms! This is after all of the rumors floating around yesterday, due to some tweets that were sent too early. This will be the first Counter-Strike game since Counter-Strike Source, which was released in 2004.

Valve states that CS:GO is a brand new game, with new weapons, maps, and modes. They've also promised new versions of classic maps, such as de_dust. The game will also feature leaderboards, and a matchmaking system, similar to the one that was introduced to TF2 earlier this year. CS:GO will be released in early 2012, and will be playable at PAX Prime this month, as well as Eurogamer next month!

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is a game that has been awaited for nearly 10 years now. Its predecessor, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, has a large tournament scene, and has immortalized the subgenre of crossover fighters forever. But does the long awaited sequel hold up to the legend? This is my review of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.

The first thing people will notice when they start playing Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is the smaller roster of characters. Marvel 2 had 56 characters, and Marvel 3 features only 36. However, I am not disappointed by this decision. While I do miss a few of my favorites from 1 and 2, such as Mega Man, Captain Commando, Cyclops and Strider Hiryu, many of the characters in 2 were throwaways. In this game, I feel like all of the characters have value to them. They all have their own play style and, despite some of them being obscure like Dormammu or M.O.D.O.K, they are interesting fighters nonetheless. Each one also has their own arcade mode ending, unlockable icons/titles, and they have voiced responses based on whom they're fighting.