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Let's just push this bit of business out of the way right up front: my name appears in The Gunstringer. Twisted Pixel's lead designer on the project, a surly, vaguely unattractive Australian by the name of Dan Teasdale, is someone I've worked alongside in my sordid past. Part of the game's grading system involves "review quotes" from various "critics." According to Teasdale's site blog on the subject, he apparently wanted a "likable jerk" to help provide quotes. Evidently, he first thought of me, which I guess is sweet. Sort of.

Anyway, I sent him a bunch of fake review quotes to use in the game. I did this entirely gratis, as it'd probably be something of a conflict of interest to be paid for such work. Plus, I like dangling favors like this over people's heads, calling in return favors at the most inopportune and uncomfortable times. And, I get to say I contributed to a game alongside a personal hero of mine in Troma Films founder Lloyd Kaufman, who also submitted some alarmingly bizarre quotes. Seemed worth potentially tarnishing my good name.

Now that you know all of this information, you may now marvel as I attempt to actually make objective judgments about The Gunstringer, based on my first attempt at playing it at this year's E3. The unpleasant Australian man himself is at the Microsoft booth demoing the game, and despite my general reluctance toward being in the same room as him, my curiosity toward this bizarre product I've lent my name to got the best of me.

If you're unaware of the game's premise, here's the quick and dirty version. The game is a puppet show. Almost literally. All the game's action takes place on a "stage," complete with a live action video audience that the game will periodically cut away to for reaction shots and applause/boos. Your character, the titular Gunstringer, is a skeletal cowboy on a mission for revenge. All the action is built into Microsoft's Kinect sensor, with your left hand controlling the "strings" of the Gunstringer, and the right controlling the gun. Movements are generally simple, requiring you to direct your left hand left, or right to move the Gunstringer, and up to make him jump. To shoot, you simply point your right hand at the screen, and cock it back to fire.

The entire game is on rails, so all you need to worry about is dodging, jumping, and shooting. One section of the game I saw being played by someone else did involve some side-scrolling gameplay, with a good deal of jumping and obstacle dodging, though still while on rails.

The question with any Kinect game at this point in the technology's lifespan generally tends to be, "Do the controls work?" Good news: yes. I've heard from some that previous builds of the game played a little loose, with more latency between your movements and the in-game reactions than you'd tend to want. I experienced nothing of the sort in the latest E3 build. The controls felt appropriately sensitive, and the Gunstringer would react to my movements with appropriate levels of sensitivity to my admittedly violent gesticulations. It feels good, and best of all? You can play sitting down.

The game will, of course, feature Twisted Pixel's trademark brand of absurdist, borderline sociopathic humor. You'll be fighting everything from murderous wobbly arms puppets to unholy cross-breedings between lumberjacks and alligators. Apparently there's a pretty good, too-long sex scene between a lumberjack and an alligator somewhere in the game, so that's super hot.

Take these opinions with as many grains of salt as you please. My closeness to the game obviously prevents me from ever reviewing the final product, but I was honestly just curious to get my hands on the thing after all these months of emails filled with abject cursing and ludicrous legal threats between myself and Mr. Teasdale. And I honestly came away digging it. Today's news that The Gunstringer would move from the realm of Xbox Live Arcade to a final retail product is an interesting one, though Teasdale did say to me that they are planning on fleshing the game out with more content in anticipation of the retail release. At least, that's what I inferred from the series of the dismissive wanking motions he kept making every time I'd ask a question.

We'll bring you more on The Gunstringer as it gets closer to release. Though I probably won't. Not until Teasdale makes good on that favor, at least. Any suggestions on what kind of horrible thing I can make him do? I'm thinking some kind of secret murder on my behalf.

Say this for Nintendo: they're rarely predictable.

This morning's E3 2011 Nintendo press conference promised to unveil the console maker's next generation of hardware, and Nintendo did not disappoint. Instead, it mostly confused, bewildered, and at times, very much impressed.

Let's start with the name, which had been the subject of much bandying by various industry pundits. Everything from just "The Nintendo" to far more ludicrous options had been tossed around, but the near-universal agreement that the Wii branding would be ditched turned out to be a falsehood. The Wii U is the new system, and Reggie used the name unveiling to make a few alliterative talking points regarding "unity" and "utopia" among players.

The console is designed to cater to both the hardcore audience that Nintendo seemingly all but abandoned when the Wii was first introduced, and the casual-minded players who flocked to the Wii in its early days. But just what the hell is this thing, anyway?

Nearly all of the presentation was dedicated to the new controller technology, a slick-looking, tablet-inspired device with two circle sticks, a d-pad, the usual suite of buttons, a gyroscope, a built-in camera, and what have you. However, the big draw is the built-in screen, a 6.2 inch touch-sensitive screen that can emulate at least some version of the graphics you'll see on your TV screen.

Though the demo at the conference didn't do much to explain this, there is actually a Wii U box that hooks up to your TV, which works in proper HD. It's backward compatible with all existing Wii games, and apparently supports existing Wii hardware too.

One of the more intriguing things about the new controller device is that it actually lets you keep playing your games if you decide to do something else with your TV. Whatever game you're playing via the TV will automatically switch to the controller screen should you decide to start watching something else on television.

Nintendo's big thing was to demonstrate the number of different uses for the tech, which included everything from video chat, to stylus drawing, and a variety of motion/video-based controls. However, this was done largely at the expense of new game announcements. Reggie himself only touted one new game in development--a new Lego title from TT Games--but a video featuring several third-party developers and publishers including a slate of game announcements, including Darksiders II, Assassin's Creed, a new Tekken game, Metro Last Light, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, and more. EA's John Riccitiello even vaguely described the "possibility" of a Battlefield game appearing on the system, as Battlefield 3 footage played behind him. However, he stopped short of an actual announcement.

Nintendo is not showing any full games at E3, but rather is sticking to "game demos," which sound more like tech demo-ish proofs of concept. Regardless, we'll definitely be getting our hands on this strange, fascinating new device during the show. Look for more in the near future.

Capcom's Yoshinori Ono was on-hand at Sony's E3 2011 press conference to unveil a new version of the publisher's upcoming crossover fighting game, Street Fighter x Tekken for Sony's new handheld system, the PlayStation Vita.

The Vita version is aiming to deliver a full fighting game experience on the new system, and even comes with a goofy little bonus feature separate from the console versions: Infamous' electrifying hero, Cole. Ono even demonstrated a bit of his in-game fighting skills and, well, it looks ridiculous. Still, it's no weirder than Kratos wandering into the Mortal Kombat universe, right?

No word on whether the other version of the title, Namco Bandai'sTekken x Street Fighter, will get similar treatment, but that's probably up to Namco Bandai, isn't it?

At its E3 2011 press conference, Sony finally ended the long, excruciating wait to know what its new handheld console will be branded.

Surprise! It's the thing that's been rumored for weeks: the PlayStation Vita.

Stalwart Sony executive Kaz Hirai revealed the name during a conference presentation, in which he also gave a brief look at some of the social networking tools built into the hardware, and announced both wi-fi and 3G-enabled models of the device. He also announced that AT&T would be the exclusive network carrier for the device, which elicited a rather massive audible groan from the audience in attendance.

The price of the two different models has just been released via press release. The 3G model will retail for $299, while the wi-fi only model will go for $249.

Here's something we weren't expecting: a PS3-exclusive shooter from a PC MMO that features direct connectivity with that same MMO. But that's exactly what we got at Sony's E3 2011 press conference.

Dust 514, a online first-person shooter from EVE Online developers CCP, is itself a massively-multiplayer online game of some fashion. In addition, actions that take place in either game affect the other. How, exactly, that will all work is still a matter of some question, but CCP and Sony seem confident that this universe is something worth investing in, as Dust 514 will also include Move support, have its own dedicated Home space (yay?) and find its way to the NGP/Vita somewhere down the line.

Dust 514 is scheduled for release in the Spring of next year, and a closed beta will launch later this year.

It's a fascinating crossover that, honestly, I'm not completely sure what to make of. What do you folks think?

Confirming rumors we've been hearing for some time now, Ubisoft today brought us our first look at Far Cry 3, the latest sequel in its jungle-faring first-person shooter series.

In the game, you are Jason Brody, a man on the hunt for his kidnapped girlfriend and put up against a group of rebels, including one particularly verbose one who seems to enjoy explaining the definition of insanity to our hero.

The action shown in the trailer was unquestionably violent. Lots of blood, lots of explosions. Seemed highly reminiscent of the kind of gunplay you'd typically find in an '80s Schwarzenegger flick, like Predator or Commando.

We'll be sure and get the trailer up as quick as we can. It's a doozy. And it's got swears!

Ah the Summer of Arcade, that special time of the year when children and adults alike can avoid basking in the warm summer breezes and touching anything that remotely resembles fresh air, and instead spend five straight weeks downloading and playing through five new Xbox Live Arcade games Microsoft deems rad enough to put in its Summer of Arcade promotion.

Most of the lineup actually consists of titles we around the Giant Bomb offices have been looking forward to for quite a while now, such as the debut title from Fuelcell Games, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and Ubisoft's intriguing "spiritual successor" to Populous, From Dust. One I'm personally looking forward to is Toy Soldiers: Cold War, the follow-up to Signal Studios' surprisingly enjoyable tower defense game.

And then there's Fruit Ninja: Kinect. Yeah. Fruit Ninja. Kinect. Mmmhmmm.

Moving on! Last, but definitely not least is the debut title from Supergiant Games, Bastion. Obviously, we have a slightly vested personal interest in that one, what with all the coverage of it we've had via our Building the Bastion segments on the Happy Hour shows. Still, I'll try and remain as objective as possible in wishing congratulations to the Supergiant posse regarding their inclusion.

The promotion kicks off July 20th. No specific dates have been given for each title yet, but expect one a week for the five weeks starting on the 20th. Can we maybe have Fruit Ninja come the last week? During Gamescom? That'd be swell. Thanks.

We'd known Insomniac Games was going to debut its first foray into the realm of the multiplatform at this year's E3, but what, exactly, the game would be was entirely unknown... until now!

Ted Price brought his patented cheerful demeanor to EA's E3 2011 press conference to announce OverStrike, a new action title featuring a crew of sarcastic, violent-minded mercenaries out to save the world from evil. Probably.

Truth be told, we don't really know what the game is, yet. The trailer presented information on the game's four primary protagonists, their general styles, the kinds of absurd gadgets and weapons they'll employ, and gave an indication of the game's generally tongue-in-cheek demeanor--think Team Fortress 2 mixed with Human Target, or something along those lines--but no actual gameplay was shown.

Regardless, color us intrigued. We all like shooting guns, but something other than a deathly serious blockbuster military shooter sounds pretty good right now. We'll be sure to dig up everything we can on the game once E3 opens up its doors.

Not gonna beat around the bush or write any overly lengthy intros for this one. Just the facts.

Battlefield 3, one of the two military shooters you are most likely to be chomping at the bit for this year, now has a release date: October 25th, 2011. That's two weeks prior to Modern Warfare 3, just in case you were keeping score at home.

Also getting a release date during EA's E3 2011 press conference was BioWare's latest sci-fi action RPG, Mass Effect 3. You'll be able to continue your adventures as Commander Shepard on March 6th, 2012.

Time to start stuffing your piggy banks!

Minecraft is coming to Xbox 360. Its only console appearance will be on the Xbox 360. And it will support Kinect.

That's all we really know about this ill-defined new version of Minecraft, otherwise known as the most addictive PC beta test of all time. I've been sitting here racking my brains, trying to figure out exactly what all this is going to entail, but I just can't do it. I just keep picturing people doing the Fable: The Journey Fushigi hand motions to build stuff and terrible child actors trying to collect square coins, and then talking loudly about how they failed to do so. Or, maybe not.

All we do know? Minecraft is coming to the Xbox 360. That is most definitely a thing. We'll bring you more when we have it.