I called Just Cause 2 the best thing I saw at E3. That’s a big call for a sequel to a so-so game. So, just in case you think I’ve gone mad, watch this.

It’s the same developer demo I sat through behind closed doors at E3. It runs for around 10 minutes, but it’s definitely worth watching the whole thing. As for why I thought this was “best in show”, well…I value innovation and originality in gaming as much as the next man, but sometimes, I just like to see things explode.

I don’t know about you, but that’s no Princess Zelda. Could it be, as so many are speculating, the living incarnation of the Master Sword?

Prepare to meet your frosty, carbonated maker in this E3 trailer for Telltale’s Tales of Monkey Island.

Brings back memories, doesn’t it? That’s Dominic Armato voicing Guybrush there. He’s the original voice actor for the character, and it shows. Who else could pull off a line like, “Here comes Guybrush Threepwood’s glowing sword of hot monkey vengeance!”?

No one, that’s who.

This being E3, there’s been a lot of impressive stuff on show. But nothing as impressive as seeing somebody play Ubisoft’s RUSE on Microsoft’s $20,000 touch-screen “Surface”.

What Is It?
Saw bridges the gap between the first two Saw movies, placing the player in the role of Danny Glover’s character, detective David Tapp. In the game, Tapp wasn’t killed when Zep shot him in the stomach, instead continuing his pursuit of Jigsaw until he winds up in the state he is at the beginning of the demo: with an explosive bear trap attached to his face.

What We Saw
The game can end as soon as it begins if you don’t follow the on-screen prompts, rotating the left stick to undo bolts and then hitting the two release switches using button presses. It gets your blood pumping and serves as an excellent introduction to this twisted game.

After that first harrowing sequence I guided Tapp through darkened corridors, solving puzzles and interacting with some of Jigsaw’s other victims, culminating in a fight and the revelation that after Tapp was shot, a key was sewn inside him that many of the other prisoners need to escape Jigsaw’s asylum. Shortly after that I entered a room filled with writhing bodies strapped to hospital beds, and the demo ended.

How Far Along Is It?
Much further along than it was when AJ saw it back in April, the graphics and textures have been vastly improved since Konami showed the title last. It’s still scheduled for October 2009, to coincide with the release of the next film.

What Needs Improvement?
A Few Tiny Glitches: I played through the PlayStation 3 demo, with missing textures and some missing sound clips. The Konami rep explained that the Xbox 360 version on the other side of the wall didn’t have the same problems, and they had run into a few snags with the PS3 version that were being worked on.

Unwieldy Combat: One would assume a police officer have a little more hand to hand combat training. The fight I was involved in was a clumsy affair with relatively unresponsive controls. Needs to be tightened up a bit.

Shock Therapy: While the first Saw movie subtly built towards a brilliant crescendo, the second seemed more occupied with providing shock after shock after shock. Unfortunately the game is more Saw II than Saw I. There needs to be a little more suspense built between gruesome events to keep the player from becoming used to it too quickly.

What Should Stay The Same?
Surprise!: While the shocks could benefit from better pacing, there are some generally creepy moments in the demo – moments that really make your stomach twist. Reaching into a toilet filled with syringes in order to find a fuse or walking on broken glass in bare feet…you can almost feel it, and it’s a hideous feeling.

Alone In The Dark: While it may seem too dark at times, wandering through such a well-rendered, disturbing environment using only a Zippo lighter to find your way adds an exquisite level of tension to the game play experience.

Reedulls And Poozles: While some of the mini-game puzzles take you out of the action, they were nicely balanced, relying on tension to enhance difficulty rather than having the player have to pull themselves too far out of the story to concentrate on picking a lock or finding a combination.

Final Thoughts
Saw is a genuinely creepy game, capturing the disturbing vibe of the film series, but is it too much? After finishing the demo I walked away feeling dirty, like I had done something wrong. It’s one thing to watch these events unfold passively on your television screen, but actively participating? It might just be more than my usually strong stomach can handle.

So, Mario and Luigi are Italian, but are they Italian stereotypes? Be warned, bad words and bad fake facial hair ahead!

Thanks, B W!

Mario is back and ready to circle around planets in spaaaaaaaaaace.

As we posted previously, Miyamoto said that the original plan was to “essentially create new variations of the worlds in Super Mario Galaxy.” But, over time, the developers have had so many ideas that Miyamoto estimates that 90% of the game’s levels are all new. The rest, he said, are levels from the original Mario Galaxy with different objectives.

The controls haven’t changed, but Mario’s been given new abilities via the addition of Yoshi and a drill item. Miyamoto also told Kotaku that “there’s something that might be kind of a little bit ghost like but still a little different.”

How? Well, we’re not quite sure yet, as we’ve not yet poked the Wii Vitality Sensor. But these beautifully unblemished, wrinkle-redacted hands have. Initially, Nintendo says, it will sense a user’s pulse and “a number of other signals being transmitted by their bodies, and will then provide information to the users about the body’s inner world.”

Yes, it’s all vague “life rhythm” non-scientific stuff, but this are Nintendo games here. They’re not claiming to cure cancer or helping you prevent a heart attack. At the very least, it could make horror games more interesting.

Microsoft says that video start up using their new service will be “as close to instantaneous as possible” by transitioning between many different bitrates and resolutions of video. What that means, Microsoft says, is that video will start up at a low bit rate for fast download and then shift to a higher bitrate and quality as the download kicks in. The process, they say, will allow them to deliver 1080p video with little to no download delay.

Another cool feature being added is the ability to host an Xbox Live party and have your friends all gather in the virtual room as avatars to watch the real movie or TV show on their television.

The service relaunch will also include a better search function and is being expanded form eight to eighteen countries.

In addition to the current eight markets – US, Canada, UK, France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Spain – Zune video will launch along with Xbox LIVE in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.