The release date of Max Payne 3 is just next week and we couldn’t be more excited for the return of bullet-time. Our brief stint with the game was thoroughly enjoyable. This time around Max utilizes a two handed system which allows him to carry two one handed weapons such as a SMG and a pistol or a single two handed weapon like a shotgun. Combined with bullet-time, nostalgia quickly consumed us as we dove from behind cover towards unsuspecting enemies. Rockstar stressed that the cover system exists, but this isn’t meant to be a cover based shooter. Rather it’s there to give you a basis to launch your attacks with bullet-time.

Of course what would Max be without his pain pills? This time around the pills have an extra use. If you find yourself out of health, the game will automatically consume one bottle and launch you into bullet time, giving you a chance to enact revenge before you die. If you do so, all is forgiven and you can keep going on your way.

We had a moment towards the end of the demo where we bullet-timed over a car, popped an enemy in the face, and then swung both weapons to our left to take out another foe just to our left. However, what we didn’t see was a thug with a shotgun taking cover behind the car. As we fell towards the ground in slow motion, he pumped some bullets into our chest forcing us to use one of such pain pills to save our life. At this point, both ourselves and the representative were holding our breath, it seemed like an eternity, we had to swing our free arm a good 150 degrees to get in the shot. As we pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet between his eyes an “Oh man!!” resonated from the three of us at the station.

Max Payne 3 is coming back with a vengeance. The single player felt great and the return of bullet-time has us raving. The only thing that could have made this demo better was a chance to play the multiplayer where bullet-time will also be included. We can only imagine the amazing feeling of knowing you have someone dead the second we launch into bullet-time. And then there’s the feeling of the sitting duck who’s simply trapped in someone else’s bullet-time. Regardless, we can’t wait until next Tuesday to get our hands on it.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings looks to bring back a rather large mechanic from previous Civ games, religion. As your civilization progresses through the ages, builds different religious buildings, and produces faith, you will be prompted to select a different facet of your religion. Each can only be granted to one civilization so it’s practically guaranteed that there will be a race to get to the best bonuses. The developer showed how these worked and how each affected different variables. A base religion will provide bonuses to just your civilization while later on another selection will give bonuses to all cities (whether friendly or not) which have followers in them.

The team has also factored in the later stages of your cities diplomatic development. Now a civilization with autocracy might not like another civ with order. Combined with the new ability to take over cities using strictly naval forces and the added ability of espionage Gods & Kings looks to be a must buy for any hardcore Civ fans. A successfully implanted spy can do various tasks to disrupt the cities everyday flow, however, it can also give intel into the enemies actions. For example, it might inform you that Genghis Khan is planning to attack Washington. You can then take this intel to Washington, bide him time and win his favor.

City-states can no longer be bought out quite as easily and the entire pacing of the tech tree has been overhauled. This combined with even more civs to play with, it’s unfortunate that our bodies require sleep, otherwise we don’t think we would ever stop playing Gods & Kings when it comes out on June 19 for $30.

There are many XCOM fans out there, and that was evident at PAX East as there was quite a large gathering of people waiting in line to get their eyes on XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the strategy game being developed by Firaxis Games of Civilization fame.

The demo we were shown began in the combat stage where your team is inserted into a level which is randomly populated with aliens. A strategic, yet simple combat phase was made evident as you maneuvered your team of soldiers around the map, each with their own abilities and roles. To keep things immersive, the fog of war has returned along with the infamous permadeath which had fans clamoring for a return to the difficult gameplay that the series is known for.

The developers touched upon the Tactical Mode which is the world overview of the war against the invading aliens. In it, you can upgrade your base through expansion and utilization of technology and other various resources found on the battlefield. Balancing the different nation’s demands is something that new players will have to adapt to, each will make it’s demands to your organization, fail to do so and they might just withdraw all support and decide to stick it out on their own.

Throughout the demo, the developer used a bunch of different abilities which ranged from covering fire, grenades, rockets, and overwatch. The middle two are self explanatory while the later is something which will require players to adapt. When any character is in overwatch, it skips it’s combat phase to instead wait for enemies (whether squad members or an aliesn) to move into his line of sight and fire upon them while they are on the move.

The devs also showed off some of the different enemy types which are certainly a little stronger than the cannon fodder we’ve seen so far. Upon approaching a building, a soldier stumbled upon a Berserker who certainly wasn’t happy to see him. In the proceeding turn, the berserker promptly charged through the wall and pummeled the soldier to death. That squadmate was now gone forever, including all of the field experience he had gained throughout the campaign. Moments like this keep XCOM personal, the developer noted that a colleague of his named all his squadmates after family members, further increasing the emotions that are brought on by such moments. The desperation of trying to save a family member without any further sacrifice of life is certainly something that XCOM: EU brings to the table, and it’s one that we can’t wait to experience later this year.

Remember that Spec Ops: The Line beta two year ago? Yeah, not many people do. Regardless, the team at Yager Development promises that the game that we played at PAX East had been completely revamped based on feedback from the beta. We started off flying through skyline of a post-apocalyptic Dubai, being chased by other helicopters for some reason or another. As we peppered the enemies with bullets from the mounted minigun, they crashed into various buildings and structures throughout the environment and really had us looking to experience more despite it being a rather linear moment.

Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t stick with us throughout the playthrough. The combat feels like it’s lacking in one way or another, a mix between Ghost Recon Future Soldier‘s third person, cover based shooter and Call of Duty‘s quick paced jerkiness. The option to change your aiming system (hard, soft, or free aim) allows you to change this pace a little bit, but overall the game felt relatively the same.

The cutscenes and characters certainly feel emotional, as promised by the developers, and shown in various screenshots that they’ve released so far. The sense of verticality is effectively utilized as we had to travel from one level of a skyscraper to another level in a different skyscraper, all-the-while trying not to fall to our deaths. The voice acting is above average and that one squadmate with his tongue-in-cheek sense of humor made our experience more enjoyable. His remarks about various happenings such as poking fun about the government will coerce a smirk upon your face, despite the gruesome reality of what is occurring all around you.

We fought our way through the city trying to find the remnants of a squad that was sent before us. After some investigation, the team realizes that there’s more going on here than they’ve been informed of. A civil war has erupted and not only do both sides hate you, but your own government wants to tie up loose strings. This won’t be an easy time.

Unlike pretty much every other game that was shown at PAX, our hands on time with the game was long, and we mean long. After playing through two complete levels from the game, we actually wished our time with it was shorter, which is typically a bad sign. But with a month and some before the game releases, the developers still have some time to make the minor tweaks and changes, add that additional level of polish, and hopefully make Spec Ops: The Line what it’s always been worked out to be.

Square Enix and IO Interactive have revealed Benjamin Travis, a new character in Hitman: Absolution who will serve as your new handler. The first video is Travis’ ICA (International Contract Agency) File giving you some background on the character while the second provides some insight behind the recording process. In it they talk with Powers Boothe (“24″) who voices Travis, and Shannyn Sossamon (“A Knight’s Tale”) who voices Jade.

Sunday morning, we were among the first people let into the convention center. One of my friends was yet to get his hands on Borderlands 2 so today was his last shot. The rush to the booth was incredible. Within 45 seconds the entire line was full, throughout the show we had heard that at times, there was a four hour wait but this was unbelievable. Luckily, we had gotten our hands on it the day before, albeit for a rather short amount of time. The showfloor was so busy that they had to cut the amount of time that the media had with the game, and that was only the standard 15 minutes like everyone else. However, when we showed up, there had been some scheduling problems and we ended up with roughly ten minutes to playthrough the entire demo.

We chose to play as Maya, the Siren, who had the ability to Phase Lock her enemies, suspending them in mid air. This proved particularly useful when we faced some of the new crystalline enemies who pounded the ground to launch you skyward and deal damage. This also exposed their weak points, their legs, allowing for a massive amount of damage to pour in from Salvador, the Gunzerker who was playing right next to us. The Phase Lock can effectively turn the tide of battle instantly, giving your team those precious seconds to deal a ton of damage while rendering the enemy helpless.

The amount of loot hasn’t decreased one bit. The world is still full of lockers, dumpsters, containers, and of course, weapon chests, waiting for you to just open them and find out what’s inside.

We had a blast with Borderlands 2, Gearbox has added a ton of enemy variance, more color (!), and even more weapon variation. Rocket launchers actually proved useful for once, we got to use a weapon that dealt a new type of damage (purple), and the tongue-in-cheek humor is back as the last boss contained a weapon chest that had, well, lewd photographs that apparently Marcus had us retrieving for him.

Between our hands on time, and the Gearbox panel which announced player customization loot, the Mechromancer, and more skill trees, we can’t wait for the full game to release this September.

The short time we got to watch Assassin’s Creed III at PAX East revealed more than we could have hoped for. Through gameplay and commentary the developers effectively showed that the new setting isn’t going to throw the team off. Animations are more realistic as Conner reacts to nearby explosions and cover, vaulting over or under obstacles. Shrubs have also been integrated into the cover system as a slow approach will result in a crouched stance, concealing yourself from the enemy. Tree movement is fluid and realistic as the trees are dynamically created to provide more realistic forestation.

Not only is Conner more aware of his environment but the environment is more aware of him. Nearby AI finally react to his presence as soldiers being instructed sent glances his way as he walked through the lines. And the potential battles have been ratcheted up as well, as Ubisoft can now put upwards of a thousand people on screen, up from around 250 in the previous games.

We were also introduced to the rope dart which allows you to attack from your perch in the trees. Enemies below will find the rope wrapped around their neck as Conner jumps down to the ground below; the enemy is then hoisted in the air and left to suffocate. With a rather large distance between himself and the enemy, he had to dodge a few bullets as he rushed to get in melee range where he could do some damage.

Because Conner is built as an offensive assassin, he is meant to always be on the move. This is reflected in some of the new combat as he can now assassinate enemies on the run; quickly killing multiple enemies on his way to the target.

We were a little concerned with the new locale of Assassin’s Creed III, but after our look at some gameplay, Ubisoft has alleviated these completely.

Ghost Recon Future Soldier had quite the set up at PAX East as the action could be hear from all around. So we decided to sit down and play through the first ten waves of the new Horde style, Guerilla Mode. With three teammates we blew through the first waves relatively easily. After each wave, supply crates carrying equipment and weapons were dropped allowing us to restock or change our loadout on the fly. As we progressed the weapons get better and better and the equipment stacks allowing for us to take on the bigger challenge.

Instead of being rewarded for the amount of kills without dying, we were rewarded for completing waves without failing. Support includes the likes of turrets and airstrikes. After each wave we had the opportunity to get in place, set claymores, and prepare for the oncoming assault. This is especially necessary on every tenth wave where you face a “boss” (read: a convoy of enemies). Afterwards the hill moves elsewhere in the map forcing you to adjust your strategy on the fly.

The game places a big emphasis on teamwork as you can mark enemies for your teammates to see no matter where they are on the map. This makes it a lot harder to find yourself out maneuvered by the enemies who can seemingly come out of the woodworks. It doesn’t take much to get yourself critically injured, and even then you’re rendered helpless on the ground, giving your teammates very little time to clear the vicinity and revive you.

We came away feeling like Future Soldier certainly has potential, but Guerilla mode feels like it’s there simply to give players who appreciate co-op another option. The short time we had to be stealthy felt great, but this mode doesn’t really cater to that audience. We can’t wait until the public beta to get our hands on the meat and potatoes of the Ghost Recon series in some competitive multiplayer action.

Far Cry 2‘s online experience was a great one when it came to custom made maps, but the online community quickly dwindled when it came to competitive multiplayer. Far Cry 3 is hoping to change that. When we were thrown into the action we were given the option to choose between various classes, each with a different loadout. The gametype had us playing a “Conquest” type match where players strive to take over various points on the map and the team that runs out of tickets first, loses.

Like other games, when you die you don’t die instantly but are critically wounded and require the aid of a teammate to get you up. You survive longer if you hit the A button repetitively or you can let it drain out and respawn. One of the cooler things we experienced was a battle in which we were really low on health and rather than just sit back and recover, we had to hurry away from the battle and physically take the time to heal ourselves through injection.

Various killstreaks allow for cool abilities which we didn’t really get to experience on the losing team. However, we were getting dominated (the enemy team had all of the control points) so the game gave us the ability to see enemies no matter where they were on the map. This has the potential to be good and bad; some were frustrated with it, others appreciated the attempt to even the team’s out.

When we experienced our last death we had our final chance to experience the pretty awesome killcam that has been put into place. Every time you die, the camera pans out to show where you were standing, where the enemy was standing, the path the bullet took, and where it hit you on your body. This was one of the coolest features we noticed in the entire demo. However, it still needs work. It might just have been the level, but it felt a little too fast and frantic for the Far Cry multiplayer that many have come to love. We’ll have to wait until September to get our hands on the final product.

The editor in Trials HD was impressive, and there were a lot of good creations that came out of it. Prepare to have those tracks blown out of the sky like they weren’t even moving. The editor in Trials Evolution is back and better than ever. Now an entire world is at your hands as shown by the following trailer.

“The editor tool for players in Trials Evolution is the same tool we used to create all the tracks and all the skill games in Trials Evolution,” said Antti Ilvessuo, Creative Director of RedLynx. “We did not use any other editor. This thing is a monster and the limits are not known even to us! We’re very excited to see what people will be able to create and share with the entire Trials community using this powerful tool.”

Trials Evolution released on April 18 for 1200 Microsoft Points.