And yes, the trailer is every bit as insane as it makes the game out to be.

With 10 minutes to spare in the demo I played at Capcom’s E3 booth, I was given one simple objective: kill as many zombies as I could with insane weapons.

Within a minute of the demo, I could tell Dead Rising 4 isn’t much different from its predecessors, especially Dead Rising 3, but it’s far from a bad thing. You will spend much of your time clearing scores of zombies with the most ludicrous arsenal. I mainly used a crossbow with projectiles that shot firework rounds, which would then explode with a sizable blast radius, but I had other items such as a huge ax with electrifying results — literally — and a traditional Molotov cocktail.

‘Cause baby you’re a …

Switching weapons is now a breezier process. Instead of having a limited inventory space and switching through each weapon one at a time, there are now three categories of weaponry used via three buttons: melee, shooting and throwing items. Pressing X will swing whichever melee weapon you have equipped; right trigger will shoot projectiles such as rifles, or the bow I used — though the left trigger can still be used to bring up a targeting reticle and shoot the traditional way; and throw-able items like a plunger with explosives strapped around it are tossed into crowds with the left bumper.

Each weapon type can host up to eight objects, meaning Frank’s maximum inventory can reach up to 24 items once the player has leveled up enough. While I never found switching weapons to be a nuisance in Dead Rising, this implementation certainly makes things more streamlined in combat.

I drove one vehicle, a dune buggy of sorts with, basically, military weaponry mounted on the top. It had machine guns and missile launchers that easily destroyed clusters of zombies. The most interesting component of this over-the-top vehicle was the machine gun that fired its rounds while spinning 360 degrees.

I also discovered the exo suit — clearly used by yet another new pernicious military branch — featured in the trailer, and while I couldn’t find abilities other than punching zombies, it was still a knockout item. While it is powerful, it can only be used for a limited time. The lights on the suit indicate its power level, and mine started running low within a mere few minutes, though I’m positive it can be upgraded to some capacity in the final game.

The photography elements found in the original game also make a return. Using Frank’s camera, players can attempt to capture insane pictures to gain extra experience points, or PP.

Outside the demo, an Xbox representative shared further details about the game. The story takes place 16 years after the events from the first game. Like Dead Rising 3’s aptly named Super Ultra Dead Rising 3′ Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX + α content, Dead Rising 4 will feature four-player co-op, but it will also feature a separate story from the single-player component. The rep couldn’t comment on whether or not the co-op would be lengthier than solo play, but it’s nice to see it will be available from the start rather than via extra content.

Dead Rising 4 is exactly what I expected: the kind of dumb fun and zaniness you would find in a B-movie. Fans of the series will feel right at home at Willamette Mall and beyond when the game releases on Dec. 6, and those looking for a simply entertaining title — despite it being 42, 176th zombie game on the market — need to look no further than Dead Rising 4.

Chris Wilson, senior producer for Activision, took us through a demo on how character customization works, which he said has been a highly requested feature for the series.

Players can customize virtually everything on their Skylander from the usual kinks found in character creators such as class, chest and arms, and even uniques catch phrases with a beginning and ending — all of which are unlocked in various ways from boss battles to loot found from fallen foes. The example phrase they used was “Can’t stop” for the beginning phrase and “zombie dance party” for the second half.

The self-created characters are put in the game and saved through crystal toys, which, like the normal characters, can be swapped in and out at any time.

What the character wears will have an effect on different stats as well, meaning costume parts aren’t simply for aesthetics. After a boss was defeated, it dropped the “rocky” armor it was wearing for the player to wear, which granted a higher armor rating.

Aside from character customization, Wilson also talked about new characters called Senseis, the masters for each character class. The Senseis are not only stronger than the average Skylander, but they also teach new techniques to character classes. For example, if you get a Sensei for the bow class, a character you create that uses the bow will be granted new powers.

Another popular feature players have yearned for is playing as villains, which players will finally get their hands on in Imaginators.

So how does Crash fit into all of this — other than Activision holding rights to the character? Wilson said a wormhole has opened on an island that basically allows Bandicoot to cross over into the Skylanders’ universe. Makes sense, right?

Editor’s thoughts: If I was a kid, I would absolutely be going crazy for this. It was pretty cool seeing everything I could use to form my dream character. I could give it a doll head with an upper body that looked like it skipped leg day, or simply an awesome scaly creature with a sword. And with a loot system akin to Diablo’s, I can see kids going crazy over this — and parents driven into insanity through their wallets.

Sheltered follows a frightened family struggling to survive a global post-apocalyptic world. Players must find their way to a deserted shelter and make choices in order to keep the family alive and well. How you handle these moral choices in difficult situations will mean the difference between survival, and death; and in Sheltered death is permanent.

Family members must be sent out of the shelter in order to scavenge for supplies amongst the desolate wasteland, but roaming factions and feral beasts occupy this baron land and won’t hesitate to kill for their own survival.

Sheltered is developer Unicube’s first venture into games development, with the small team of 2 (Sonny Meek and Dean Foster) based in Shrewsbury. Unicube took their idea to Kickstarter, where it was then spotted by Team17’s CEO Debbie Bestwick. Working together with a full experienced development, both Unicube and Team17 have been able to complete the co-development of Sheltered.

Sheltered will release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux and will cost £9.99 / $14.99 /12,99  €.

Blast ‘Em Bunnies will release March 8 on PS4 and Vita in the Americas; March 9 on PS4 and Vita in Europe, UK, Australia and New Zealand; and March 10 on Nintendo 3DS and March 11 on Xbox One, across all previously mentioned territories. Xbox One owners can also pre-order Blast ‘Em Bunnies or the Super Mega Bundle, which includes 5 arena packs, 5 skin packs, and 3 multiplier bonuses from February 10.

Blast ‘Em Bunnies has players controlling a bunny named Bang Bang, who must defend their burrow from an onslaught of evil bunnies. Utilising a variety of different fruit based weapons, Bang Bang must eliminate their enemies and upgrade weapons in order to protect your burrow and save your offspring.

“As a development team of 2 and a company of 3 we have poured our heart and souls into making this game a highly polished, frenetic experience on all of the platforms we are releasing on,” said Founder and Creative Director of Nnooo, Nic Watt. “It has been a real labour of love to ensure we release across such a wide range of machines at the same time across the world. We are super proud of our efforts and hope all of our fans old and new enjoy the game!”

Nnooo has stated that Blast ‘Em Bunnies has been “tailored for each platform”, with each version created to take advantage of each platforms unique abilities and processing power; not bad for a company of three. You can also check our AA’s previous hands-on time with Blast ‘Em Bunnies here.

Following the announcement of the ESL Arena at this year’s PAX Aus, the full list of eSport events has now been revealed. Joining the previously revealed SMITE Oceania Regional Championship will be Rocket League, and the highly anticipated, Halo 5. The full list of events, including timeframes, details and more are below.

Friday, October 30 (Morning) – Rocket League

• Friendly, single elimination best-of-three tournament
• 16 teams in a 2v2 format
• Giveaways
• Pre-registration only

Friday, October 30 (Afternoon) – SMITE Oceania Regional Championship

• Both Semi Finals of the SMITE Oceania Regional Championship
• Paladins Free-Play area

Saturday, October 31 – SMITE Oceania Regional Championship

• Top four teams compete for a share of $65,000 in prize money, 1^st to qualify for SMITE World Championships
• Bronze Match and Grand Finals of the SMITE Oceania Regional Championship
• Paladins and Community Showmatches
• Paladins Free-Play Area
• Giveaways

Sunday, November 1 – Halo 5

• Team Immunity and Team Exile 5 compete against each other and the community in show matches
• Professional invitational series between Immunity and Exile 5
• Mixture of Free-For-Alls and Team orientated matches
• Free-For-All community tournament
• Giveaways

The ESL Arena will also feature a range of friendly competitions and championships across the event. PAX Aus will take place at the Melbourne Convention Centre from October 30 – November 1, with tickets still available to purchase online.

Extreme Exorcism has players taking on the role of Extreme Exorcist Mae Barrons, who specialises in ghost removal – with a unique set of methods. Each time a ghost is exorcised another will return mimicking the players previous movements, weapon fires and dodges. No matter how good you are at removing ghosts, you will have to beat your best in order to survive the chaotic ghostly menace.

Players will be able to choose from an assortment of more than 20 weapons, including swords, guns, rocket launchers, lightning spells and Kung-Fu moves to take down these ghosts. Extreme Exorcism will also feature a single player story mode, 50 challenges, local multiplayer for up to four players, and cooperative and death match modes.

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The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed original, The Book of Unwritten Tales, which spoofs around popular RPGs, fantasy novels, and movies. The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 brings together unique humour while showing love to iconic series’ like World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.

The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 is now available on PlayStation 4 (digital or boxed), Xbox One (digital or boxed), PlayStation 3 (digital) and Xbox 360 (digital). You can read AA’s original The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 PC review here, where we gave the game an impressive 9.0, calling it a “virtual storybook worth reading”.

The AFK Room will be a quiet area for people looking to relax and take a break from the busy PAX floor. The room will be staffed with volunteers and clinicians who can answer question and offer support for those taking a break from the show floor.

Take This is a US-based not-for-profit organisation, which has teamed up with PAX to bring this joint initiative down under. The AFK Room was introduced at PAX East in 2014, and has since accommodated up to 500 attendees each day during events. The AFK Room has been a permanent feature of every US PAX show, and PAX Australia is happy to replicate this feature.

“We are thrilled to bring the AFK Room and Take This’s message of healing and hope for those dealing with mental health issues to PAX Australia,” said Take this Executive Director, Russ Pitts. “Over the past year, as attendees of US-based PAX events and other shows have become more aware of the mental health issues in our community, we’ve seen a growing demand for spaces like the AFK Room and education and awareness like Take This provides. To be working with PAX to ensure that the Enforcers and attendees at PAX Aus have support for dealing with these issues is a wonderful privilege.”

“After seeing the benefits at PAX East 2014, it’s always been Russ and my goal to get AFK rooms to not only all PAXes but to all gaming events across the globe. Take This is an organization that helps gamers, period,” said Penny Arcade President Robert Khoo.

PAX Australia will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from October 30 to November 1. Single day passes and 3 days international passes are still available online here. It was also previously revealed Warren Spector would be appearing at the event, and ESL will be hosting an eSports Arena at the event.

Joining the previously announced lineup of artists are some of the best artists from history and current day. These include Pearl Jam, Orianthi, Haim, Lamb of God and Passenger. The newly announced songs join previously revealed tracks from the likes of The Vines, Wolf Mother and Angus & Julia Stone, as well as hundreds of other tracks available at launch.

The full list of new songs and artists are listed below.

• Pearl Jam – Sirens
• Surfer Blood – Demon Dance
• Gerard Way – No Shows
• Orianthi – According to You
• Haim – The Wire
• Tonight Alive – The Ocean
• Lamb of God – Ghost Walking
• 36 Crazyfists – Also Am I
• Wavves – Demon to Lean On
• Passenger – Let Her Go

Guitar Hero Live will release October 20 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U and select mobile devices (to be announced soon).

ESL is the world’s premier eSports organisation and this will be the first time they appear at PAX Aus. The event will be staged over three days of the show, in a purpose built arena on the PAX Aus show floor, where it will host one of the largest eSports events Australia has ever seen.

Over the course of three days multiple games will be shown, each with a significant prize pool. The first title to be announced for the event is SMITE, with two other games to be announced shortly.

The event will host the SMITE Oceania Regional Championship finals, which are scheduled for the Saturday of the event. Teams will compete for a share of a $50,000 cash prize pool, with the winning team representing the region at the SMITE 2016 World Championships in Atlanta, USA.

“eSports has grown to become such a massive cornerstone of the gaming community over the last decade, it only made sense that it would eventually become a prominent part of PAX Aus,” said Guy Blomberg, PAX Content and Community Manager. “We want eSports in Australia specifically to be taken seriously as well, and this partnership with ESL and ACL Pro puts us all on the right track.”

“Here at the Australian Cyber League we have long been looking up to ESL as the global leader in the space, producing some of world’s best eSports events,” said Nick Vanzetti, Managing Director at ACL. “It makes great sense to bring the ESL Arena to such a prestigious gaming event as PAX Aus. This opportunity allows us to level up the current eSports offering and truly put our region on the map.”

PAX Australia will be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from October 30 to November 1.

Single day passes and 3 days international passes are still available online here, and you can find all the latest details for PAX Aus on Twitter and Facebook . It was also previously revealed Warren Spector would be appearing at the event.