Stephaine Marlay

But earning those power-ups isn't as simple as spending one's earned coins, it's actually facilitated via the game's coolest feature. After each level players accumulate a certain number of dice rolls, which determine the improvements they have access to. Rather than being able to increase your damage percentage outright, players have to hope they roll the appropriate number and land on that space. It's quite an ingenious little addition, and helps keep that carrot-on-a-stick always out of re

Flourishes — charged up versions of each character's basic attacks — and an AOE attack that sacrifices one heart piece, are also at the player's disposal as they fight their way through the many enemy types that have pervaded the Fable universe. While the appearance of hollow men, hobbes, and balverines might suggest that this is a Fable game for fans to look forward to, the experience of playing it does

It's hard not to take families with younger children into consideration when reviewing Fable Heroes , but even they deserve something a little better than this. There are hints of complexity that suggest the game is for an older audience, while the look and gameplay make it seem like a broad, kid-friendly title that carries the Fable name. Unfortunately, in service of trying to win over the most gamers (or even non-gamers) possible, Lionhead may lose every

While Fable proper was about taking one's player through a pre-determined life cycle — making life-altering decisions along the way — Fable Heroes puts up to four players in control of a wide variety of Fable archetypes. Rather than giving each player the gameplay mechanics present in the RPG version of the game, Heroes designates each player's "puppet hero" with a specific skill. There are a handful of puppets to choose from, some of which hearken back to key moments in Fable 's history, but all basically fall into one of three roles (ranged, melee, mag

On the bottom left, players will notice a Parasaur, a dinosaur commonly found in starting areas and on beaches of ARK maps. These herbivores make great pack mules and mounts, as they can carry a lot and still run relatively quickly. Above it there's a human riding on a Triceratops , one of the best defensive mounts that players can get early on in the first game. Finally, in the top right there is what appears to be a drawing of a Stegosaur, a dinosaur that in the previous game provided great utility for harvesting a variety of different types of resour

But it is also not unheard of for Microsoft to pull a real surprise out of nowhere during their press conference (they did so last year with the new Xbox 360 redesign ), so don't be shocked if it happens once again. While we have taken a few stabs at what that big surprise might be, we’ll know for sure on June

Get your game on outside of Azeroth! A panel of Blizzard Entertainment creative decision makers and licensed partners are on hand for a discussion and unveiling of World of Warcraft -inspired products. In attendance: Chris Metzen, Blizzard Entertainment SVP of creative development; Micky Neilson, Blizzard Entertainment publishing lead; Hank Kanalz, VP/GM of WildStorm and World of Warcraft comic editor; Julian Rignall, Future Plus editorial director of World of Warcraft Official Magazine ; Jim Fletcher, DC Direct design director; and Cory Jones, Cryptozoic Entertainment president and chief creative officer. Moderated by Kat Hunter, Blizzard Entertainment licensing project manager and host of BlizzCon coverage on DIRE

Without many first party exclusives this year, Microsoft’s gamer interest has waned a little ever since Gears of War 3 (sure to make a press conference appearance) was pushed into Fall 2011. What would be great to see from Microsoft is a lot of first party exclusives to help equal the content gamers were seeing offered this year from S

While the prevalence of Xbox 360 exclusives continues to wane, there is one title that most fans are already looking forward to: Fable 4 . Typically part of a two-year cycle, the Fable series has always been about evolving the video game experience into something truly unique. Unfortunately, in most cases, when compared to the promise the result falls a bit sh

So here we are again, hoping that E3 will show us that Battlefront 3 may still have some life left in it. New interest in the Star Wars universe in the lead up to release of The Old Republic could make the title a more appealing one, not even considering the leaps and bounds in online multiplayer since the first title's release. Evidence isn't easy to come by, Adventure games DLC but don't bother telling us that it's wrong to h

If the websites registered for the game are any indication, the next GTA game may be just what fans of lewd humor have been missing. The technical advancements in both of Rockstar's last titles are sure to be worked into the game, but exactly what kind of animal it will turn out to be is a mystery. A possible leaked release date for the game , and rumored connections to the Wii 2 all point to an announcement of some kind at E3 2011, but we won't know anything until Rockstar decides to pull back the curt