Because of the time it takes to really get to know a system and being limited by only those few games at launch, it wouldn’t be fair to give a full and formal review of the Wii U console just yet. Instead, I’m just going to give my first impressions of it with a full review possibly coming later.

When getting the Wii U, the first thing I noticed and was unfortunately disappointed by is its setup time. If you plan on using the Wii U to its fullest potential, you are going to need to do an update to the system right off the bat. While this is automatic when doing your network setup, it is required to use the Wii U’s full functionality including things like the YouTube app. Nintendo has never been known for their online features and like Sony doesn’t have fast download speeds for consoles.

As a result, it took almost an hour of setup and download time before my Wii U was ready to go. Tip for parents, if you are giving your kid a Wii U for Christmas, open up the box and do this before you give it as a gift. Nothing is going to disappoint little Jimmy Xmas morning than having to wait an hour before he can actually start playing his Wii U.

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At New York Comic Con, we got a special media only peek at live gameplay of Max Payne 3. For those who may be too young, the original Max Payne came out in July of 2001 for the PC with XBox and PlayStation 2 releases to follow in what Rockstar claims as “the birth of the cinematic action shooter”. Max Payne introduced the concept of bullet time into games, which has been copied innumerable times since, especially in titles like John Woo’s Stranglehold, where players were able to slow down time and carefully aim and place each bullet they fired as opposed to the mad run and gun fury in most first or third person shooters. Precision was key.

Max Payne also took a Noir approach to its storytelling which helped set it apart from the games at the time which focused more on being more like big summer blockbusters than gritty crime dramas. Max Payne would eventually spawn both a sequel and a motion picture release starring Mark Walberg.

When we got to see Max Payne 3 in action, the first noticeable improvement is the full facial animations of the characters. Max no longer has the eternal look of pain frozen into his face. Instead, he has a fully animated set of emotions ranging from angst to utter despair. Just because it’s a new game, don’t expect a new demeanor for Max.

Also changed is the graphic novel style storytelling. In the first two games, cut scenes played out like reading panels from a comic book with static images with caption boxes over them while Max’s voice over told the story. Now, everything plays out in engine in full animated glory for the players as they traverse through levels. There will be Hollywood style camera cuts as well as on screen captions of what Max is saying but the game plays much more like a high quality motion comic during these cut scenes rather than flipping through a book.

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At New York Comic Con, we had the pleasure of stopping by the Sega booth to take peeks at both the new Captain America game as well as the upcoming Thor title (stay tuned for that story!). When we got to the Sega booth we were given a hands off demo from Brandon Gill from Next Level Games, the developers of Captain America: Super Soldier which is being published by Sega.

We were told right off the bat that one of the most fun parts of the creative process was working with Christos Gage on an original story as opposed to being shackled to the storyline of the movie. The version we saw will be on the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 but there will be a Wii and Nintendo DS version as well.

The entirety of the title takes place during World War II after his origin. One thing that quickly stood out was the change of Nazi villains to Hydra. In keeping with Marvel’s family friendly image and the youth skew that game may take, it isn’t surprising that they went this route. The entire game takes place with Hydra entrenched in a Bavarian castle with Cap running in to tear them down.

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At Comic Con, the folks at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gave us a walk through of their new family friendly Lord of the Rings title, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest. Rated E10+, Aragorn’s Quest takes a drastically different tone and gameplay style from the recently revealed The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

Shown on the Wii, Aragorn’s Quest has players listen to the tales of Samwise Gamgee as he explains to his children the events of The Lord of the Rings, focusing on the tale of the current king Aragorn. Over the course of eight chapters, players are then given the opportunity to take the role of Aragorn on a series of quest that follow the events of the three films. Each quest contains smaller side quests players can embark on.

Having Samwise voiced by Sean Astin and Gimlee voiced by John Rhys-Davies is meant to keep an older audience into the game as they help younger players through it. Unfortunately during our walk through, the noise of the convention prevented us from experiencing the voice acting.

The game has a simple visual style that strays away from the dark overtones of the film and previous game titles. There is no blood or any other effects that would go against the game’s family friendly image. Using the WiiMote, players hack and slash their way through hordes of goblins, orcs, spiders and trolls in an effort to escort Frodo to the peak of Mount Doom to destroy the one ring. Different motions result in different strikes. During combat, directional prompts will appear to perform specific actions and finishing blows. Players will also have a chance to switch between ranged and melee combat as well.

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At Comic Con, we had the opportunity to speak with Associate Producer Dan Sutton from volition inc, the developers behind Red Faction: Armageddon and get footage of a developer walk through of one of the levels. Dan told us that what they enjoyed working on with Red Faction: Armageddon was that they were able to take the base premise of destroying everything that was established by Red Faction: Guerilla and improving upon it.

While Red Faction: Guerilla was fairly open world, Red Faction: Armageddon will be a more linear experience with much more focus on story. This time with a longer development cycle to play with the engine they built for the previous game, volition was able to design a world completely around this wholly destructible premise.

As you will see below, there has been a focus on not just having destruction but taking that destruction and using it to encourage creative gameplay. One such example of this is the new magnet gun. A simple premise, point and shoot at two objects and they will go cascading into each other. This can be done with enemies, buildings, objects or any combination of them.

They have also taken the idea of destruction and turned it on its head with the Reconstructor, part of the nanoboard that the main character Darius wears on his arm. Any object you destroy can be re-targeted and pieced back together. A great example of this comes from blowing a hole in the side of a building while being chased and sealing that hole behind you to provide a much more secure escape route.

Some weapons they discussed with us that we haven’t seen include a black hole gun. This is what it sounds like where a miniature black hole is shot into an area and it begins to suck up everything around it and spit it back out at a player. Because the story of Red Faction: Armageddon takes place fifty years after the events of Red Faction: Guerilla, the team was able to take some of people’s favorite weapons from Guerilla and enhance them.

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The night before Comic-Con, Activision let the press see the upcoming third person action shooter James Bond 007: Blood Stone for the first time on the Xbox 360. Though it was not a hands on demo, the press was allowed to see a playthrough of the game’s first level.

In it, the Daniel Craig-inspired Bond makes his way through a pier-side estate using shooting and cover tactics similar to that of Alpha Protocol and Gears of War. The game incorporated a reward system to stealth take downs that would allow players to pull off instantaneous special kills. Bond then took part in an action packed speedboat pursuit before a high impact car chase.

During all of it, the game looked great. It looked as though gameplay ran smooth though its hard to really tell without actually getting a hands on play through. One thing emphasized during the demo was the variety in gameplay as the game had both fast paced sequences including shooting and driving contrasting the slower paced stealth sections.

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The iPad has shipped, the box has arrived and I’ve opened it and looked inside. Yes, the iPad is here. By way of refrence, I ordered a 64GB iPad with WiFi only. My rationale for this was I usually use most of my devices where there’s Wifi so the idea of having 3G capability on this iPad wasn’t really a factor.

Not only that, I don’t like the idea of giving AT&T any more money than I already do for my iPhone 3GS and I didn’t really want to wait another month to try out the iPad. So, Wifi version it is.

Although, after using it I may discover that having 3G is more important than I think it is. We’ll have to see about that one. I’ll do a more in-depth review a bit later after using the device for a few days but until then, here’s what I think so far.

Design and Build Quality

Apple designs nice looking productuct and nobody can deny that. They also tend to build them pretty well. The iPad is no exception. On first use it was a bit heavier than I expected but stil, as I usually carry a much heavier 13″ MacBook Pro around most of the time, the weight really won’t be a factor.

Also, once you see and use the iPad, the black bezel around the edges makes perfect sense. That’s where you hold it with one had while you use it with the other. In other ways, build quality is excellent with all the parts fitting together very nicely in a tight package.

Oh, and did I mention the screen is absolutely beautiful. Pictures and video look amazing and book text, either from iBooks or with the Kindle for iPad Application, is very readable. However, I would say that reading a book on the iPad is not quite as easy on the eyes as it is on the Kindle. I think the Kindle, at least for me, is a slightly better reading experience. But fortunately, the iPad does so much more and for shorter durations, or after I get more used to it, will probably end up being fine for reading books.

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This past weekend at Big Apple Comic Con, we had the opportunity to get some exclusive hands on time with the upcoming THQ release Darksiders. Our very own Matt Raub also got the chance to sit down and talk with its creative director Joe Madureira of Battle Chasers fame to talk about the game. That interview will be up soon.

Darksiders tells the story of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Like his other three cohorts, Death, Strife and Fury, he’d help bring upon the End of Days when the time was right. But something went wrong and someone set events in to motion for the end of the world too soon and War was blamed for it. Now, a hundred years later, War comes back to earth to try and set things right in a literal post-Apocalyptic world where he hacks his way through both angels and demons to try and find out what went wrong.

Starting off with just his sword in hand, War cuts his way through demons very much in style similar to God of War. War, being the master of weaponry, is also able to pick up non-traditional weapons to the original Apocalyptic mythos when he is able to wield an assortment of guns as well. As his attacks pile up, War also gains access to the power of his Wrath meter which allows him to unleash stronger attacks and various powers that he regains through the progress of the game.

The game’s action takes place in underground areas filled with puzzles as well as topside of a free roam world. Joe Mad has compared the style of gameplay to that of the Legend of Zelda series. When wandering through the demo levels, the game was easy to pick up and play with intuitive controls and easy to navigate areas.

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