Ilomilo (first letter is an "i", second an "L") is great to look at. But how do you play this game about two cube-people needing to meet? Maybe let a Kotaku guy and a Giant Bomb guy play, sans directions.

On second thought, maybe that's not how you do it.

Giant Bomb's Brad Shoemaker and I each took an Xbox 360 controller in hand at the Microsoft booth at PAX East and tried our best to understand Ilomilo, a puzzle game involving two characters who need to walk across tricky terrain in order to stand next to each other.

Brad and I were bravely trying this new upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game. Our first discovery: we would be taking turns. We could each move one of the cube people, but when I had control and could move, he could not. It seemed that we were playing a cooperative game, but we could not move at the same time. When I had control, my cube guy was front and center. Brad could only control a cursor version of his guy. With that cursor he could highlight areas of interest, but not control his guy. When I pressed a button, Brad had control.

We figured out that we needed to get our cube people to stand on adjacent cubes in each of Ilomilo's dreamy floating environments. In the early levels, this was too easy. My guy trotted over. His guy hit a switch to pull my guy over. They met. We won.

Ilomilo has many tutorial levels. These levels teach you that some blocks can be picked up from the game world and transported on your back until you put them down again. This important action allows you to create bridges where there once were gaps. You can also walk on small ramps that rotate the world and turn what were the sides of the game's floating platforms into the new bottom of the terrain. Brad would do this, flipping the camera view, while my cube guy waited, dangling but not falling off. Without much effort, we met again.

The game was too easy, so Brad and I backed out to the game's level selection screen and skipped a couple dozen levels ahead. Mistake. On this new level, our guys were very far apart. There were bubbles coming out of vents on some of the blocks. One of the blocks I picked up and placed back down became three cubes long when I put it down. Except sometimes it was back to being just one cube long. I bridged a couple of gaps and wound up with my guy on a high perch. He was stuck. Brad spun the level by walking his guy up some ramps. He was spinning the camera enough to make me feel unwell. It no longer seemed wise to have skipped the rest of the tutorial levels.

I beckoned an official who was working the PAX Microsoft booth. He explained the expanding blocks to us. We asked him about the whole taking-turns thing and wondered whether the second player really could only control a cursor while the other player moved around. The man looked confused. Cursor? I guess he skipped most of the tutorial as well.

Brad and I each had other games to play. So we dissolved our brief partnership. He went off to play other games. I stood behind one last second to ponder Ilomilo. Looks great. Doesn't seem like it needs to be played by two people to be enjoyed. Probably ramps up in difficulty better if you, well, ride up that ramp and don't jump ahead. It's a puzzle game at its core, for people who like staring at a complicated game level and figuring out which switches need to be pushed, which gaps spanned in order to be solved. Give me and Brad more than a few minutes of Ilomilo play time sans directions and I'm sure we could be masters.

You'd be wise to act now if you want a physical copy of PM Studios' DJ Max Portable 3 next month, as the publisher reveals only 5,000 UMD copies and 1,000 Special Bundle Editions making it stateside.

The age of the digital download is upon us, or at least it is for any DJ Max Portable fans looking to score a copy of the game in October after the initial release runs out. PM Studios is only releasing 5,000 retail copies of DJ Max Portable 3 on October 14, and those copies will be available through Amazon.com and Bemanistyle.com.

Along with the limited UMD copies at $40 a pop, PM Studios is also releasing an extremely attractive Special Bundle Edition for $110, with less than 1,000 available for purchase at Bemanistyle.com.

What's do you get for $110?

• DJMAX PORTABLE 3 UMD
• Altenate Coversheet
• Special Art Book
• DJMAX PORTABLE 3 SOUNDTRACK
• Deluxe Packaging
• Contest Voucher

The contest vouchers are randomly placed in the Special Edition Bundles, giving stalwart fans a chance at some very impressive prizes.

• Grand Prize (5) Winners: Technika Championship Card (Only 30 Made), Technika Platinum Crew Card (Only 30 Made), Technika Limited Edition Panda Card, DJMAX Portable Black Square Limited Edition, DJMAX Trilogy Limited Edition, DJMAX Fever, DJMAX Black Square and Clazziquai Edition Combo Pack, Technika Limited Edition Soundtrack, Technika 2 Limited Edition Soundtrack.
• First Tier (300) Winners: Free PSN Version of DJMAX Fever.
• Second Tier (100) Winners: Free PSN Version of Strikers 1945 Plus.
• Third Tier (20) Winners: Free Technika Championship Card
• Third Tier (20) Winners: Free Technika Platinum Crew Card
• Fourth Tier (50) Winners: Random Technika Card

Don't worry if you don't manage to secure a physical copy; the game will be available for download via the PlayStation Network on October 19, though wouldn't it be nice to be one of those 6,000 owners of a full copy?

It has not been easy to explain to people why Slam Bolt Scrappers, an early 2011 downloadable PlayStation 3 exclusive, is a lot of fun. Watch the video here with the sound off and you may still not get it.

But... perhaps I narrated this video of Slam Bolt Scrappers well enough that you will be able to understand this crazy game. I shot this on Sunday in Seattle at the Penny Arcade Expo, during the final hour of the show.

It's the debut effort from Firehose games. It wowed me at PAX East in Boston last spring. Then it got a publisher, Sony Online Entertainment. And in Seattle at PAX Prime this past weekend, the developers were showing some of the (solo or co-op) campaign, like this boss battle I shot here.

For the video-impaired, this is a PlayStation 3 game for 1-4 players. It can be played competitively (one stacked tower vs. the other) or as a campaign. Players control little flying guys who beat up flying enemies. The defeated enemies leave behind colored Tetris-like pieces which hover until you grab them. You rotate and/or drop the Tetris-like pieces into a tower stack, trying to create squares of color — 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, etc. Those squares of color automatically convert into weapons. Red blocks that are 2x2 or bigger become missile launchers; blue become shields; purple become lasers; green, not seen in this video, become drills. They all auto-fire, either attacking or defending against the other players or against a boss character. A skilled player tries to make 4x4 and 5x5 blocks of color, because the bigger the square, the more powerful the weapon... oh, just watch the video!

It makes sense when you play, mixing Tetris, Puzzle Fighter, Tower Defense and a bunch of other ingredients.

Slam Bolt Scrappers will be out early in 2011 as a download for the PlayStation Network.

Greg Grunberg, formerly Matt Parkman from the TV show Heroes, screams defiantly in the face of a Locust warrior while doing some voice recording for Gears of War 3, as seen on his Twitter feed.

The battle at Minerva's Den may be your last chance to visit Rapture, the undersea utopia gone haywire of BioShock 2. It's a waterlogged journey both familiar and new, a proud send-off to 2K Marin's capable follow-up to the original BioShock.

As Subject Sigma, you step into the suit of a Big Daddy, drill in one hand, genetically altered super powers in the other. And, familiarly, you've got a bug in your ear in the form of Charles Porter, telling you where to go and what to do—namely wrest control of Rapture's central computer, The Thinker, from Porter's rival, the maniacal Reed Wahl.

Unfamiliar are the new things Minerva's Den brings to BioShock 2. There are new plasmids, like the micro-black hole spawning Gravity Well, and new weapons, the Ion Laser, which can be acquired from the new Lancer class Big Daddy. Ultimately, it's another wet slog through Rapture, full of Splicer battles, Little Sister harvesting and trying on new genes. Worth the return trip, and the ten bucks?

Loved

BioShock Condensed: If you're thirsty for more BioShock, you'll get a five hour dose in highly condensed form with Minerva's Den. You'll sprint through the gene-splicing upgrade process, gaining new abilities, weapons and ammo types quickly and easily. It's BioShock 2, now leaner, and with a mostly new cast and a new environment, but an experience familiar enough to sink back into within minutes. This downloadable add-on provides a few new tricks that makes it stand out—Security Bots that fire electro bolt! Yes!!—but the already refined gameplay of BioShock 2 is still a treat to play.

Enraptured: Better than Minerva's Den's new tricks is its narrative. The method of its storytelling may feel slightly worn, but the quality—and the few twists—of the story of Minerva's Den makes the hours invested worth it.

Hated

We've Stomped This Before: Minerva's Den may engage with its plot, but the well-worn gameplay can border on tedious and tiresome, unmotivating at best, particularly when watching over Little Sisters as they extract genetic material from corpses. The Ion Laser weapon is something of a dud addition, just like the comparatively bland Gravity Well plasmid. The former is welcome for the copious ammo thrown at you and the latter provides a few light puzzle opportunities, but the old reliable options are just too reliable to skip in favor of the new ones.

Minerva's Den is a fine way to put BioShock 2 to bed, a story well told while revisiting Rapture and the solid gameplay of 2K Marin's contribution to the BioShock universe. The new spaces one finds oneself in are expertly crafted, making Rapture feel fresher than the new confrontations with Big Daddies and Big Sisters. For the BioShock fan who never felt the need for multiplayer in their plasmid-fueled experience, Minerva's Den is a smart, single-player side story to spend one's time and money in.

BioShock 2: Minerva's Den was developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on August 31. Retails for 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played single-player campaign to completion on Xbox 360.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

With the power of video games enabling us, we've been able to make James Bond a klutz and Darth Vader a hero, but who expected that Disney would allow us to make Mickey Mouse a selfish, dangerous jerk?

At the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle last weekend, Disney was letting people play the first level of this fall's big Epic Mickey game for the Wii. The level is mostly tutorial. You learn how to run, jump and spray paint or thinner on spaces of the world, depending on whether you want to make things appear or disappear.

One part of the level grants Mickey access to the first of many brief 2D sections of the game, areas that are based on established Mickey Mouse cartoons, such as Mickey and the Beanstalk (seen in this post).

There's this one moment in Epic Mickey's first level, though, when you learn that this game has more edge to it than you might expect. Mickey Mouse can make moral decisions. He can decide whether to be nice or mean, although the game's script — and a Disney person who might stand next to you at, say, a Penny Arcade Expo while you play the game — emphasizes that Mickey is always a hero.

Alright, but Mickey Mouse might be the kind of hero who sees a treasure chest and doesn't care who he might hurt trying to get it. This treasure chest in the first level is connected to a contraption that includes a catapult on which an innocent Disney Gremlin is standing. And Mickey might be given a choice to either save the little guy or Mickey could grab the treasure chest and send the guy on the catapult flying... to who knows where. To his death? Who knows. What would Mickey do? The nearby Disney representative might warn you that this Gremlin, if rescued, will then block your access to the treasure chest.

When, at PAX, Mickey was made to go for that treasure chest, that catapult guy did indeed go flying off yonder somewhere. The landing probably hurt.

The moral decisions in Epic Mickey have some sort of undescribed effects on how the Epic Mickey journey unfolds. There are also consequences for Mickey's player-orchestrated preference to use thinner to defeat Mickey's enemies or paint to befriend them (yes, in the world of Epic Mickey, spraying paint on someone who is trying to hurt you makes them your friend.) As the player leans more to the nice or mean tendency, small floating specks of colored light will trail Mickey. These Terps and Tints will create a shield for Mickey and will fly toward enemies to do more of the beating-up or befriending in which the player's Mickey specializes.

It's still unclear how a lot of this variation plays out. Warren Spector, the head of the Epic Mickey project, has been known for games such as Deus Ex which give players a lot of flexibility in their playing style and with how they express the moral disposition of their character. These elements feel unexpected in a Mickey Mouse game but familiar in a Spector one. We'll see what it all adds up to. Good? Bad? Mickey's always a hero, they say, but sometimes, in some player's hands, maybe he'll be the kind of hero who might as well have been your enemy.

The fine folks at UK online retailer ShopTo.net give us our first in-depth look at the innards of incredibly large Halo: Reach Legendary Edition, nearly breaking it in the process.

Don't you hate it when you decide against ordering the ultra-expensive special edition of a game and then see a video like this and begin craving giant Halo statues? I've already put my money down on the less expensive limited edition, and can't see myself coming up with the extra money to bring home this giant box, but damn if that statue wouldn't look lovely sitting on a shelf in my home, collecting dust.

Maybe I can just pick up a broken one once an online retailer employee drops it on the floor?

HALO REACH LEGENDARY UNBOXING [ShopTo.net - Thanks Phil!]

Friends of Brian Wood, the Company of Heroes developer who lost his life in a tragic car accident on Friday, have established a trust fund to aid his wife and their unborn child during this trying time. Every dollar counts.

As reported earlier this week, Company of Heroes Online lead designer Brian Wood of Relic Entertainment lost his life on Friday night, when his Subaru Outback was struck head-on by an out-of-control Chevy Blazer. The 33-year-old developer was killed in the crash. According to his wife, his last act was swerving his vehicle to take the full brunt of the impact himself, saving her life and that of the couple's unborn child.

Radical Entertainment's Szymon Mazus, a close friend of the family, now points us towards a trust fund established to aid Erin and her child as they deal with this tragic situation.

"Brian was a very close friend. He was just the kindest most down to earth person you could ever hope to meet, as is Erin. We have set up a trust fund to help Erin and the baby during this very difficult time and I was hoping you would be willing to post a blurb about this and a link to www.brianwoodmemorialtrust.com on your site. We, family and friends, would be incredibly grateful."

I can only imagine how deeply this tragedy affects Erin and her child. With so much to worry about now that Brian Wood has passed on, not having to worry about financial matters would certainly be a large weight off of her shoulders, while helping ensure that the pair have the sort of life that Brian would have wanted for them.

Every single dollar does count. Imagine the relief we could give Erin and her child if everyone who read this donated just one dollar to the fund. I've donated, and I only have $35 in the bank right now. If I can do it, so can you.

Click the link below to find out how you can contribute.

The Brian Wood Memorial Trust [Official Page]

This intense look at Medal of Honor's multiplayer shows off the game's Combat Mission mode.

In the mode Coalition forces have to take out five consecutive objectives to win. As your clear an objective the map expands. The mode also has limited respawns, which the game calls reinforcements.

The audio, as with the audio found in my play-through of the game's helicopter mission, remains a high point for a what is shaping up to be a very solid looking shooter.

Did you notice the Bradley Fighting Vehicle in the video? It can seat both a driver and a gunner. How about those Taliban you're fighting against? Yeah, I didn't notice that either.

Fifteen years ago Phillips, Sega, and 3DO were struggling to get North American consumers to accept CD-based gaming. On September 9, 1995, Sony came along and showed them how it's done, changing the face of gaming as we knew it.

Up until 1995, Sony's major contribution to North American consumer electronics had been the Walkman, the brand that became synonymous with cassette and CD-based portable music players. The launch of the PlayStation in September of that year ushered in a new age of innovation in the gaming industry, and today the PlayStation brand is in many ways in the exact same position, often used in mass media to describe gaming in lieu of more general terms.

The original PlayStation was a bit of a gamble for Sony. While CD gaming had been accepted by PC gamers, console players were clutching their cartridges to their chests protectively, refusing to budge. The Sega-CD came and went. The Phillips CD-i played pretty games, but the cost was far too high. The 3DO failed to catch on, and even the Sega Saturn, released in North America in May of 1995, failed to make a sizable dent in the cartridge market.

The PlayStation didn't simply succeed. It excelled. With CD quality sound and graphics unlike anything console gamers had ever seen it was clearly superior to its chief competition, the Nintendo 64. The situation was quite ironic, considering the PlayStation began as a joint project between Sony and Nintendo, only to have Nintendo back out of the deal to partner with Phillips on a project that would never come to fruition.

The 1995 launch of the PlayStation in North America wasn't simply the launch of a console. It was the beginning of a brand that's thrived for a decade and a half. The PlayStation 2 remains the best-selling video game console of all time, and the PlayStation 3 is looking to lead the market towards a 3D revolution.

Sony has sold more than 377 million PlayStation branded consoles in the past fifteen years, moving two billion units of software. In the U.S., the brand accounts for 40 percent of the game market share to date, generating more than $63 billion in revenue.

"When you look in the rearview mirror at what was happening in 1995 you see that the video game industry was an entirely different animal. Cartridges were still the preferred medium, and the market was a modest $2.6 billion in sales revenue annually. Many critics thought that a disc-based console with a lot of horse power would shoot over the heads of consumers, but our users proved them wrong," said Jack Tretton, CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC. "Now, we are seeing a convergence of video games and home entertainment, and a market that is a robust $20 billion in revenue. In the next 15 years and beyond PlayStation will continue to bring new and more immersive experiences, like stereoscopic 3D, augmented reality as well as genre-defying gameplay into consumer living rooms."

Sony invites fans to help celebrate the fifteen year anniversary with several special discounts and free items available through the PlayStation Network.

• Free downloadable PS3 & PSP static themes available for download on the PlayStation Store starting today
  
• Weekly discounts on select PS One titles within the PlayStation 15th anniversary collection page, available in all SCEA territories on PS3, PSP & Media Go Storefronts. In addition to a 50 percent sale on Super Rub A Dub (Super Rub A Dub offer good from Thursday, September 9, 2010 - through Monday, September 20, 2010).
  
• A PlayStation Home commemorative Original PlayStation® (PS One) ornament for personal spaces available starting today.

There have been a few missteps along the way, but the PlayStation brand has proved itself an enduring one, and secured a spot as one of the most beloved names in gaming history.

Happy anniversary, PlayStation!