Plagues. Powers. Stealth. And lots of stabbing people in the neck. Those are the first things that jump out when looking at the latest trailer for Dishonored. Coming from Arkane Studios, who developed Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and worked on the art and visual style of Bioshock 2, Dishonored puts players in the role of Corvo Atano, a bodyguard the an assassinated empress who has been framed for her murder. Obviously a title that doesn’t try to be ambiguous, Corvo must regain his honor by finding the man responsible by cutting a bloody path through anyone in his way.

One thing which quickly stands out is the power set being similar to both Bioshock and Singularity in the trailer below. The telekinesis looks very similar to the plasmid from Bioshock while stopping a pocket of time was right up Singularity’s alley. Even the art style has a Bioshock feel to it was the way characters appear within the world to the propaganda posters cleverly placed to even the environment that is falling apart on itself. There are also some notable Half-Life 2 inspirations seen as well. The gas masks worn by enemies and especially the walkers closely resemble the forces that Gordan Freeman was forced to tackle in Half-Life 2 and its episodes.

The trailer also has a fantastic score to it. A young girl’s eerie voice further pushes the desolation of the world we have given glimpses of. It also makes the violent acts shown feel that much worse as they are contrasted with the beautiful tones below them.

If you were on The Flickcast last week, you no doubt got hit with our bombardment of E3 coverage. With a convention so big, it was obviously impossible to cover everything but there are a few major things that everyone should know about this E3.

Of any of the big E, Sony had the most impressive E3 presentation because of two games. Beyond was the surprise game announcement of the show that was visually striking and has people talking, much like the trailer for The Last of Us did last year. Speaking of The Last of Us, we got to see actual gameplay this year which showed both the awesome tension and brutality of the title without even having to focus on the virus or mutations it causes and instead only showing the ongoing human versus human conflict happening in it.

Sony also brought out the Wonderbook which creates a virtual storybook, with their big announcement tied into the work of J.K. Rowling. While on paper, this sounds like an interesting concept and probably would have been a huge hit at an event like Toy Fair, it didn’t resonate with the E3 or gamer audience. Instead, it felt like it took up time on stage when gamers were hoping to hear announcements or see gameplay of other big games.

One of the most hardcore games in the MMO world is branching out toward consoles, but in a way you might not expect. When originally announced, Dust 514 was lauded as a cross-platform game where the events of the battles taking place on the PlayStation 3 would affect the greater world of Eve Online. At E3, developer CCP announced a batch of new details for Dust 514 as well as a new trailer that can be seen after the jump.

Dust 514 will be a free-to-play format. It will have a custom PlayStation Home Space and also a PlayStation Vita companion app titled Dust 514: Neocom.

The premier beta event for DUST 514 is scheduled to begin on Friday June 29th, and will run throughout the weekend. Participants that register at www.DUST514.com/betawill be chosen at random to participate, and new players interested in joining the action can still sign up. This event will be the first of several throughout the summer, and CCP will be revealing more information in the coming weeks.

DUST 514 will be fully integrated into PlayStation Home, starting at E3. Debuting as part of Sony’s Virtual E3 Experience, the DUST 514 Home Space is a way for users to get up close and personal with the New Eden universe. In addition, the first 10,000 visitors to the DUST 514 Home Space will be able to get “All Access” beta keys, guaranteeing them access to all the DUST 514 beta events over the summer. The DUST 514 Space will remain live and accessible to players throughout the summer, and Home users can expect additional beta keys to be distributed via the Home Space in the future.

With the next generation of gaming’s announcement looming over E3 2013 after both Microsoft and Sony were silent during this year’s expo, the focus has changed for game’s of this year’s E3 being innovators in their own right. While game’s like Scribblenauts Unlimited promise to give players more creative options in the way they solve puzzles, other titles like Defiance promise to span across different forms of media in a truly unique scenario.

Way back in the Star Wars Galaxies MMO, players would experience player events which promised an impact on the future story of the game based upon how the playerbase performed. If more Rebels completed a mission, they would earn more benefits for their factions in the coming months. Defiance looks to take the roots of this premise and expand it in a way never before seen.

Defiance is going to be an MMOTPS (Massive Multiplayer Online Third Person Shooter). This isn’t the first time an MMO shooter has been attempted as Planetside came out years ago and had a relative degree of success, enough that Planetside 2 is on its way. Unlike Planetside, Defiance will take place on earth and include PvE (player vs. environment) gameplay and not just straight PvP. But that’s not the defining feature that looks to set Defiance apart. In addition to being a game produced by Trion Worlds and coming to XBox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PC, it will concurrently launch with a series for SyFy TV.

When Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure came out, Activision was likely hoping to cash in on the name recognition of Spyro to get their product off the ground. Now, not even a full year since the game came out, this E3 trailer shows that they know that Spyro is no driving force behind their game and that the Skylanders franchise has taken on a life of its own with the last game’s title character not even appearing in this new story trailer for Skylanders Giants.

In this trailer, both new and old characters are given distinct voices and personalities as they discuss the myths about the Giants that will become the focus of Skylanders Giants this fall. What is most interesting is that the trailer specifically says, “Over 40 new characters”. This is a much higher number than originally announced which had stated only eight new Skylanders and eight Giants would be coming to the new title. This may have been prompted by Activision’s announcement that Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and the figures were such a huge seller since its release.

Take a peek after the jump at the latest story trailer for Skylanders Giants and let us know your thoughts.