This year’s North American Expo will take place on June 15th-17th at its usual home: the LA Convention Centre.

Along with platform holders Playstation, Microsoft and Nintendo are big names Ubisoft, Disney Interactive, Warner (Woo!), Sega, Bethesda, Konami, Capcom,Activision, THQ and LucasArts.

Last years E3 pulled in more than 41,000 attendees from 78 countries who had the opportunity to view hundreds of new titles.

Exhibitors confirmed so far include:

• Activision
• A.L.S. Industries/R.D.S. Industries
• Atlus USA
• Atomic-Accessories
• Autodesk
• Azuradisc Inc
• BDA
• Bethesda Softworks
• Bigpoint.com
• Blitz Games Studios
• BradyGames
• Capcom Entertainment Inc
• City Interactive
• Creative Mind Interactive
• CTA Digital, Inc
• DDR Game
• Deuce Entertainment
• Digiwinner
• Disney Interactive Studios
• dreamGEAR
• DXT
• Dynaflex International
• Electronic Arts
• Epic Games
• Exspect
• EZ Games Distribution
• ForceTek
• Game Outlet Europe
• South Game Source
• Gamepark Holdings Co
• Gamer Grub
• GameSpot
• Gazillion Entertainment
• Grace Marketing Company
• Havok
• Hollywood Archives Collectibles
• Hori (USA)
• iBeta Quality Assurance
• IGN.com
• InComm
• Infernal Engine
• Innex Inc
• Iode Inc
• Iron Will Innovations
• JFJ Disc Repair
• K2 Network/GamersFirst
• Konami
• LucasArts
• Majesco Entertainment
• Marjacq Man
• Mastermedia
• MTV Games
• MusicSkins
• nDreams
• Nintendo
• Nordic Game Resources
• NVIDIA
• Nyko Technologies
• OnLive
• Paradox Interactive
• Parature
• Parrot
• Pega HK Limited
• Penguin United
• Perfect World Entertainment
• Performance Designed Products
• Playseat
• Prima Games
• Proximo Games
• Rebellion
• Royal Electronics
• RTI Disc Repair
• Sakar International
• Scanavo North America
• Sega of America
• Slang
• Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Sony DADC
• Sony Online Entertainment
• Square Enix
• SureDisc Disc Repair
• Take-Two Interactive
• Taiwan Pavilion
• The Get-Well Gamers Foundation
• The Video Game Club
• THQ
• Trion World Network
• Tritton Technologies
• Turtle Beach
• U-Way Corporation
• US Games Distribution
• Ubifrance
• Ubisoft Entertainment
• Univenture
• Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
• Xbox 360
• X-Games Inc
• Zeroplus Technology Co.

The publisher famous for Final Fantasy (of course) and recently released Dragon Quest will be partnering up with Japanese publisher Gamepot for the release.

Courtesy of CasualGaming.biz, Senior Director of Business and Marketing Thomas Lee (phew) briefly described the game:

“Imagine a world of perpetual warfare, legions of unique classes, and a Hyper-Active Battle System. Think the best scenes in Gladiator or Braveheart, with the action ratcheted up to 20. It’s quite unlike any MMORPG available. Our 50 vs. 50 PvP system is pure, pulse-pounding excitement. And now, for the first time ever, North American players can step into a world from the creators of so many high-quality RPGs, completely for free.”

Mass PVP,meh… however it could be interesting! In typical fashion, news of BETA has only been made for North America.

However, keep your eyes peeled and your fingers crossed for news of a European BETA.  Here’s hoping!

IPO’s don’t usually get any bigger than this so we were really excited to get our hands on it and will be posting our impressions and a Q&A interview with the Star Trek Online development team later on today.

Before that however Cryptic have kindly given us 500 Beta keys to give away on Loadscreen.net

Update: Over 450 400 350 300 250 69 32 ***13*** NO KEYS LEFT (as of 24th Jan 2010 @ 16:50 GMT)

To get your hands on a key simply head over to our forums, register, and post in the Star Trek Online Beta key thread here requesting a key along with your favourite Star Trek quote, character or reference AND how you found out about this giveaway. The keys will then be mailed out to you in batches at 2 hourly intervals. Hurry as they are sure to disappear quickly!

Attention: If you do not REGISTER in the forums, your email will not be included in the list, please do not just comment on this post but REGISTER in the forums. This puts your email address in the correct database.

Update: Keys are being sent out in batches of 50. Please be patient, if you post before the 500th post you WILL get a key.

Don’t forget to check back later as well for our interview with the STO Dev team along with our personal impressions of the beta.

Now there are several qualms that I need to get out of the way before I can get to the juicy, shall we say prime-cut stuff! First and foremost, you have to like Real-time Strategy. Second, you have to be of a patient temperament – if you don’t have experience in this genre you will be ‘owned’ in your first game, and probably tenth thereafter. Finally, you need a friend who can invite you because I’m afraid ladies and gentlemen this game is still in the beta stages.

Gameplay – A delicate mix of Counter-Strike, Dark Age of Camelot, and Warcraft III – If that’s at all possible.

HoN is an up-to five versus five online RTS experience, where you control one character or ‘hero’ from a pool of sixty. Each hero has a unique selection of four skills, which can be ‘leveled up’ as the characters overall level increases (up to a maximum of 25). These skills can then be used to defeat enemy heroes or creeps (the AI computer controlled NPCs).

At the start of the game, each team spawns on either side of the map in their respective bases. The teams are split into Legion and Hellbourne (depending on your preference for almighty good or the armies of hell). The overall objective is to work your way into the enemy base and destroy the central building (World Tree for Legion, Sacrificial Pit for Hellbourne). This is done by attacking in one of three ‘lanes’ en-route to the enemy base. Each lane has a number of towers to destroy along the way, and while pushing the ‘lane’, AI-controlled creeps run from each base and can be killed to gain experience and gold advantage over the other team.

Throughout the game gold is obtained automatically every second, or by killing enemy creeps and enemy heroes. The money is then used to purchase items to make your hero stronger, harder, faster and better. Items can then be combined to create your very own Sword of a Thousand Truths.

Think miniaturised fantasy-themed transformers battling it out in a well organised 5v5 matchup. Essentially I like to equate HoN to a player versus player game of World of Warcraft, condensed into an hour’s session (for those of us who just can’t keep up with all that grinding and leveling).

Visual Presentation - Why can’t a competitive title that prides itself on engaging gameplay also have kick ass graphics?

Well, it can. Despite some DotA players accusing HoN of overindulging in graphical prowess, what we are essentially presented with is an extremely visceral and well-polished engine. The landscapes are full of vibrant colours and the various spell/ability effects pop out of the screen like James Cameron’s latest 3D cinematic epic Avatar.

Yes things can get a bit overcrowded when all hell breaks loose and ten heroes start going at each other, but it still works, and the fact that the game looks great certainly doesn’t distract the player from the fundamental objective of beating down your foe with an extremely large war hammer.

The texturing is obviously a step up from Warcraft III (considering how old that game is now), and I think people will be surprised with what a good job S2 Games have done with essentially a ‘mod game’.

Team Play – Two hands are better than one..

Like DotA this game prides itself on its team-play aspects. Like many of my fondest multiplayer experiences, the game revolves around using your hero’s abilities to compliment your teammate’s skills. You won’t win games unless you work as a team, and S2 Games have introduced some nice features to encourage this. The ability to use in game voice chat is a welcome addition to spamming your team in text chat, or ‘pinging’ on the map (highlighting areas on the mini map for your teammates to see).

Conclusion – Give it a try

As far as improvements on DotA go see a list here. My overall feeling is that if you like competitive games, and more specifically don’t mind RTS, then you should definitely check it out (providing you can get a key). As far as a release date goes – it looks like sometime within the next few months.

If you’re a DotA player sitting on the fence – I felt the same way even after a few games of HoN. But like any of these things, it took time and patience before I really started to appreciate what a great game this is turning out to be.

The loadscreen team have taken time out of their busy schedules (yeah right) to each list their top five favourite titles of the last 10 years.

Josh Walker (joshwk)

COUNTER STRIKE – Valve 2000

Memories bring back loading up cs_italy around a mate’s and firstly being taken aback by his ISDN connection (Yes, I had 28k at the time). Beyond doubt, CS is one of the most addictive FPS’s that has ever been released. Its level design and balanced gameplay are top notch and it can’t be forgotten that this game led to the formation of competitive gaming. A classic.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT – Blizzard 2004

Reluctantly, the game deserves a mention. Blizzard had successfully created an MMO that could be played by the hardcore MMOer or an entire family thanks to its simplicity and cheeky artwork. Track of time was immediately lost while playing and when it came to quitting, gamers found themselves in rehabilitation for a number of weeks. That, or they’re still logged in grinding for honour in Arathi Basin.

CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE – Infinity Ward 2007

Modern Warfare revolutionised first person shooters with Infinity’s 2007 release. The title arguably showed Counter Strike: Source how multiplayer should be done and came with the added bonus of an incredible single player story line. Who can forget Capt Price. sliding Soap that M1911 across the bridge and the slow mo bullets to the face of Zakhaev?

FIFA 09 – EA 2009

I assured myself a number of years back these words would never leave my mouth, but here goes; FIFA is better than Pro. This was proved in their 2009 release which helped many others realise the truth and show that EA were beating Konami at the beautiful game, on and off the field.

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM- Rocksteady Studios 2009

Licence + Videogame = Fail?  You’d be forgiven for making this assumption but Rocksteady took their time over this title and pulled out all the stops. Batman was finally given the adult treatment he deserved and the groundwork for an excellent franchise was set. Roll on Arkham 2!

Chris Finch (phonicx)

DEUX EX – ION Storm 2000

This game got me in to cyberpunk and for that I am eternally grateful. With so many things that were years ahead of its time this beauty held me entranced in its silky grip from beginning to end and has resided deep within my memory and consciousness ever since. Tracer Tong FTW.

HALF LIFE 2 - Valve 2004

The original Half Life was released in 1998 so I can’t put that, that’s why I’m choosing Half Life 2. It’s part of one of my favourite game series and I can clearly remember playing for the first time and being completely stunned as to how gorgeous it looked and how incredibly it played. Remember the buggy? Or the first time you met Alyx?

UNCHARTED 2 – SCE 2009

Never has a game gripped me so relentlessly with its single player campaign. I was glued to the controller from beginning to end of the blockbuster movie thrill ride and loved it so much I pushed all the way through for the platinum trophy. “You will not defeat ME!”

SUPER SMASH BROS. MELEE – Nintendo 2002

If this was a list of “most hours spent playing any game” this one would be at the top. I spent countless nights with roommates smash attacking into the night and loved every minute of it. The Wii version is great and a possibly better that Melee, but this version holds a special place in my heart.

METAL GEAR SOLID 4 - Konami 2008

I’m a fan of the metal gear solid series despite the cutscenes due to the great gameplay, interesting plots and imaginative ideas of Kojima. MGS4 is the best of the series in my opinion and I had the most fun playing it, so it gets my last spot. “SnaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!”

Charlie Gibbs (trix)

I had to wrestle hard with these. There have been some really great games over the last few years that I would have loved to put in this list (Oblivion, Metal Gear Solid 2 & 4, Fallout 3, Uncharted 1 & 2, Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto IV), and I know my games are only from the first half of the last decade, but in my opinion it really was a magic five years in the gaming industry.

DIABLO 2 – Blizzard 2000

‘Well met, noble Paladin. It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of your kind in the west’. Blizzard’s hack and slash masterpiece returned in 2000 to kick some serious Prime Evil ass. Yes the gameplay isn’t the most intuitive in the world but that’s its style. The dark-fantasy lands of sanctuary draw you in such a way that you really do start to care about your character that doesn’t even have a name. Let’s also be honest, the art direction is fantastic, perhaps at the time some of the best ever seen in a game. And as we’ve come to expect with Blizzard, the cutscenes were also out of this world.

DEUS EX – ION Storm 2000

The best game ever, period. A cyber-punk themed word of genius – one of the first games to successfully blend first person shooter with RPG elements. The story is epic, the world is immersive, and you can bionically augment yourself till your heart’s content. Just thinking about this game makes me want to play it again, you know I may just do that… and post a review, how’s bout it?

THIEF 2: THE METAL AGE – Looking Glass Studios 2000

Ahhh Garrett, when will your roof topping antics ever be topped… (perhaps with the recently unveiled Thief 4? – I hope so). Gritty and realistic graphics, a dark and engaging story, multiple ways to do the missions, a melee combat system that has rarely been topped over the past ten years, and a sense that you really were a truly masterful thief. There hasn’t been a game quite like this one for a long time.

MAFIA: CITY OF LOST HEAVEN – Gathering 2002

When I first saw Mafia on the shelf in Game I thought to myself, ‘it’s going to be about the film, and it’s going to be shit’, oh how wrong I was. Another extremely immersive game with an excellent story, the screenplay for this title was apparently 400 pages. Remember that this game had to follow Grand Theft Auto III that had just come out a few months earlier – and oh how it did in style. The driving mechanics, although now dated, were perfect. The city felt grand, the cops would even book you for running a red light or speeding such was the realism. 10 out of 10.

HALF LIFE 2 – Valve 2004

I don’t really need to say much about Half-Life 2. It pushed the boundaries beyond the level that was already set in 1998 by Half-Life. Its just a shame that the MODS for source never turned out to be quite as good as the originals (apart from L4D).

Ben Brown (abdo)

ICO – SCEE 2002

The only game of which I have bought a second copy.  It’s still sealed, completely pristine and I will never open it for fear of spoiling what I fondly remember as a most enchanting experience.  Ico is like that – you want to keep it safe, to protect that deliciously crisp atmosphere from so much as the tiniest blemish.

METAL GEAR SOLID 2 – Konami 2002

Oh Hideo.  Hideo, Hideo, Hideo.  Hideo, Hideo, Hideo, Hideo, Hideo.  HHHHHHHideo, your game is bre-aKInG ###–+_+.  Fourth wall violation of the highest, most satisfying, order.

FINAL FANTASY 10 – Square Enix 2002

Have to admit, I really didn’t want it to end.  Somehow a slightly tedious premise turns into a tearful love story.  The only shame is that the branching point to decide which ending you see is entirely bound up in a single, arbitrary looking scene.  The kind of one-off event that could easily be missed should you quite reasonably leave Yuna standing idly by herself whilst you go to the toilet.  Thanks for making it obvious, Square, cheers.

HALF LIFE 2 – Valve 2004

For no other reason than to prove that I didn’t just borrow someone’s PS2 for a month in 2002.  I jest of course.  HL2 must have a very good claim at being the most immersive game of all time.  If you want to feel like you, yourself, are actually the unwitting broker of the intergalactic deal of the millennium, allow Gordon Freeman’s sturdy glasses to frame your screen.

PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 4 – Konami 2004

There have been only a few truly great football games and Konami has made at least two of them.  In the last decade, the obvious stand out version for me is PES 4.  The pace, the animations, the A.I., all were superb.  Hopefully they will get it similarly right with this generation of consoles sooner rather than later.

Ben Hudson (frayed)

THIEF 2: THE METAL AGE – Looking Glass Studios 2000

Building on the excellent Thief: The Dark Project (1998), The Metal Age expanded on the ‘complex AI’ and ‘emergent gameplay’ of the original to allow players to inhabit the role of Garret, master thief, exploring one of the best realised, darkly atmospheric, game worlds ever created.  One of the first games that really allowed players to approach missions in a freeform manner, by stealth, by arrow, or by sword.  Copied by many, bettered by none.  Taffers.

DEUS EX – ION Storm 2000

Quite simply the best Action RPG ever made.  The sheer scope and depth of this game still astounds me.  It’s one of the few games, other than the Thief series, that went the distance when it came to level design and character skill progression, allowing consumate exploration and an almost infinite number of play-styles.  Built with rooms that had no other purpose than you could find them.  Characters that you didn’t have to speak to.  Endings you might never experience.  A masterpiece.

HALF LIFE 2 – Valve 2004

Half-Life is probably the best FPS of all time.  But if there is a contender to the title, then Half-Life 2 is the only other choice.  Linear game design has never been so natural and un-forced. Characters have never been implemented with such finesse and focus on dramatic action.  And no game engine has ever felt so smooth and convincing.  This is the game that perfected the notion of real-time physics.  This is the game that brought us STEAM.  It’s also the only original science fiction story in modern videogaming.

BATTLEFIELD 2 – EA 2005

If you enjoy multiplayer wargames, then no other game series has done more to give players the tools and freedom they needed to have a Bloody good time and be part of a virtual battle.  Jets, helicopters, tanks, humvees – all playable, all tactical, all part of the game.  Conquest is the quintessential team-based online mode, it requires an amount of cooperation that team deathmatch does not.  Oh, and did I mention the concept of ranking up and unlocking weapons in an online FPS?  Battlefield did it first.  Forget COD4.  Please.  Forget it.

THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION – Bethesda Softworks 2006

Want to play an open world, action based RPG?  Oblivion is the Lord of the Rings of the gaming industry.  It’s an ambitious, beautiful, empowering experience that transports the player to a fantasy world of devastating believability and detail.  A world where NPCs live out actual lives in the towns and villages.  A world where completing the main story quest falls by the wayside in favour of simple, blissful adventure.

I don’t think I ever left Cyrodil.  Part of me will wander there until I die (or until they release a sequel).  After all, it’s so much better than real life.

You can find the new loadscreen youtube channel “loadscreen tv” here. We’re going to be using to upload and display all loadscreen.net video posts and features and its fully functional just like any other youtube channel.

I’ve posted a short welcoming video in the channel pending the arrival of new content in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned and let us know if you like what you see!