Events

Today on BigPond GameArena we have a huge stack of new game developer and publisher interviews.

A year ago, Guitar Hero was the undoubted ruler of the casual games world. An emergent household name tying the music world to gaming like never before. And then along came a little number called Rock Band from EA. With Guitar Hero 3, Red Octane are back, and have enlisted Guns and Roses and Velvet Revolver legend Slash to go into battle. Here's how we went in our hands on session.

Theme park hijinks in Thrillville: Off the Rails, terrain deformation gets buffed in Fracture, Renegade Squadron hits you in the pocket. All worthy games. But the highlights come from a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars Lego: The Complete Saga brings the fun while Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will continue the Star Wars story.

We put 4 to the floor as Bizarre Creations steps us through the latest Project Gotham Racing title. With new locations, sweet weather effects and the introduction of motorcycles, PGR4 isn't resting on its laurels - read up for the highlights from our E3 demo.

From our final day's E3 looks comes our scrutiny of Mass Effect, courtesy of the ganme's Project Director and the President of BioWare. And with this touching down in November, will Xbox 360 owners be feeling the one-two interstellar punch of it and Halo 3? Check out our writeup and find out.

It's one of our most hotly anticipated games, and as far as we know, the PC version will debut in 2007. Yes, it's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and we've spoken to Splash Damage owner Paul Wedgewood as we get an exclusive in-depth look at the game in action on Xbox 360.

A very appropriate name for a franchise that has had a prolonged stream of games released in the series. Can Proving Ground deliver to a generation of players who have played a pile of Hawk games in the past? The answer is yes - but it's a qualified one.

We get a chance to be taken in detail through a level of E3 Game of Show frontrunner, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat. The big difference - we check it out on PS3. And the results may surprise you.

From the maker of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, comes the Xbox 360 exclusive Lost Odyssey. Will this game have any relevance beyond dedicated Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean punters? We think so. Check out our first look to see what's going for this hot RPG number.

2K Sports have announced Top Spin 3, the next in the series of popular tennis titles. Coming out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it promises the ultimate tennis simulation, with a dynamic weather system, enhanced next-generation visuals and online support. From the press release:

In Top Spin 3, players compete online and offline to rise in the ranks against current top ranked professional players. Adding a unique user-generated component, players can also use new player creator features that include free-form body sculpting, makeup and tattoos.

Check out the full press release for more information. A few screenshots accompany the press release, showing off the very pretty visuals - check them out on our PS3 or Xbox 360 game pages.