The UpStream

Even though Valve's absence from E3 this year spoke volumes on the lack of relevancy the show is becoming with each passing year (regardless of how crazy Gabe Newell gets over the same time span), the company was still able to announce some news that gained some attention. This would be much like last year, when they announced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive during Microsoft's press briefing.

This year, however, Valve announced a pretty big Steam update that will include some features gamers have been wanting for a while. And, if you've been running the beta client, you would have seen these features come and go over the past couple of months.

First up is the new Trade Offers feature. Bringing some in-game economy features from Team Fortress 2, among other, into the full Steam platform, Trade Offers will allow you to send a trade request to other Steam users, outside of a game. You will be able to trade any items from any inventory in any of your Steam games and users can then choose to accept or reject any offers made. As of right now, this will be limited to your friends list, but Valve has said they will incorporate the entire Steam community in the near future.

The second big update is Item Gifting. As it stands, you can gift games that you purchase to pretty much anyone with an email address. However, it is still not possible to gift away inventory items, like TF2's Premium Upgrade item. Instead, you currently have to trade for the item, and only can do so in games that feature a trading system. Now, Item Gifting will let you choose in-game items and cosmetics to send to your friends, or even strangers if you wanted to.

The update should be rolling out soon, so keep looking back for the infamous Steam pop-up box about an update.

I know I don't speak for everyone, but I am growing a little bit tired of zombie/horror games. It feels repetitive at this point, and nobody is bringing a fresh idea or concept of gameplay to the table. So when I first got wind of Outlast, from the description I thought we'd be in for another redundant iteration of shooting, running, hiding, hunting and gathering. Thankfully, I was wrong in the best possible way.

Developer studio Red Barrels takes the horror genre to a whole new level with their latest creation, Outlast. For those unfamiliar with the game, you play the role of one Miles Upshur, a journalist who has stepped foot into the Mount Massive Asylum, which houses convicted felonies who are mentally unstable. Upshur's mission is to unveil and expose the harsh reality of the treatment of these convicts and the only weapon he has is a camera. That's right, no guns, knives or clever Solid Snake tactics here; a camera is your only weapon of false defense. And, even though Upshur's motives are pure, the convicts are not very happy to have the presence of an outsider roaming about through the hospital and each inmate will react to your character in a different way.

Now, other than having the power of megapixels to defend yourself, what makes this game so different? Red Barrels hired on real-life neural psychologists in order to accurately portray the reactions and behaviors of mentally insane humans.

Philipp Morin, Red Barrels co-founder, said in an interview,

Working from real-world profiles and information has allowed us to portray a wide variety of behaviors to represent the patients in a realistic way. It's helped us validate ideas for the nature of the experiments that players will see in the game.

The information gathered from the doctors plays into the game in several ways. While some patients will see your character and go absolutely nuts, others will simply pay you no mind at all, and it will be up to you to determine who is safe to investigate and navigate around. Oh, and the best part about the entire experience is that not only do you merely have a camera, you also have the fighting and survival skills of a journalist (read: none). You better pack your running shoes, because if you get too close to the wrong inmate, it's off to the races to find the nearest maintenance shaft or closet to hide in.

So, while this may not be a hide-and-wait, run of the mill zombie shooter Manhunt game, this game will surely scare you on a more mental level. Literally. Want to see some of the insanity before you decide if you want to play it yourself? Check after the break, as we have the official trailer from the studio along with some live demo gameplay, courtesy of IGN. The game is slated for PC and PS4 only and will launch sometime this year.

Regardless of one's opinion of the Microsoft press event at E3, one thing for sure: Xbox was still committed to its 360 users. To prove this, they announced a huge variety of new Xbox 360 titles that will be releasing over the next 12 months, plus a bunch of free content, games and other exclusive offers. To round out their emphasis on the 360 before jumping into what everyone wanting to hear (and bash) about, the Xbox One, Microsoft also announced a brand new, redesigned Xbox 360.

In keeping with the look and feel of the Xbox One, the new Xbox 360 E model takes on a more box-like body, as opposed to the Xbox 360 S, which tapered off in the center from both sides. The Kinect also got a slight rehaul, and while it is nothing like the Kinect 2, the minor tweaks made to the frame really bring the full look together. Best of all, the new 360 is slimmer, quieter and does look a little sleeker than the previous one. Upon announcement, Microsoft made the console immediately available, although some retailers may take up to a week to get the product in-store.

On the commitment to the 360, Microsoft's Yusuf Medhi said,

Xbox 360 offers unrivaled value - with more great games, an Xbox Live community with 48 million members, and a compelling line-up of apps, sports, movies, TV and music. We've taken all we have learned these past eight years and engineered a new Xbox 360 console that is elegant and accessible to anyone. There's never been a better time to experience everything Xbox 360 has to offer.

Considering that the Xbox 360 S had no major flaws with it, I'd have to agree that now is the best time to upgrade your 360 console. I know I already picked one up, and you should too, at The Microsoft Store. The only downside is that you cannot buy a 250 GB version of it, with the Kinect bundle. The redesigned Xbox 360 is available for the same prices as the existing console: $199.99 for the 4 GB console, $299.99 for the 250 GB edition and $299.99 for the 4 GB Kinect Bundle. Luckily, I'm moving my hard drive into a new one as soon as it gets to my door step. How about you?

We have known for some time about Bungie's next title, Destiny. We got some of our first looks at it at the PlayStation 4 reveal event in February, but we didn't see any real live gameplay. Well, Sony did us a favor giving us a full demo of the game.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line the wrong portion of a campaign was chosen for the demo, with a lot of the presentation being less than stellar. This was a huge disappointment to our team, who have been waiting for this since February. Luckily, even a lackluster demo can't kill the excitement.

The game world is beautiful, as you would expect from the company that created the Halo universe. Foes and friends alike are unique, using a combination of bright colors and muted cloaks to maintain the same brightness, yet imperative distress, that they have brought us in the past.

As expected from Bungie, the game seems to handle as well, if not better, than any of the Halo titles. This is a game to be excited about at launch.

Hit the break to check out the E3 gameplay trailer.

It has been 8 years and 2 consoles since the last proper installment of the Kingdom Hearts series, premiering in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. Well, the wait is nearly over as Square Enix announced at Sony's press conference that Kingdom Hearts 3 is currently in the works.

Little is known about the game through the presentation, but there is information known outside. The title is in a VERY early stage of development because resources have been dedicated to work on Final Fantasy XV and Square almost turned down development when Disney asked. Thankfully the company decided to continue the series and the third full installment in the story is set to be the completion of Sora's mission to recover his world from the Heartless.

Outside of the story, we do know that this will be the first installment to jump the PlayStation ship and will be featured on Xbox One. So, while it is very surprising that the PlayStation 3 has been totally skipped in the series, it is even more surprising that Square is opening this franchise up the Xbox players as well.

Hit the break to check out the trailer to see what we know so far.

Ubisoft showed off a casual-ish title during its press conference, The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot. The concept is simple: get and keep stuff. Sounds like a simple premise, but in reality the process is not exactly that.

First, pillage castles. Make it successfully to the center of a castle full of traps and enemies and plunder the loot room. If you don't succeed, however, the castle owner wins and gets loot instead. Now, how you succeed in a castle is up to you. There are 3 character classes that allow you to fight up close and personal (The Knight), from across the room (The Archer) or a combination of the both (The Mage).

Second, defend your loot. Build castles with devilish traps and tons of enemies to protect your own loot stash in the center. Once complete, the castle will be available to others to enter and try and make it out with YOUR stuff just like you have done to their stuff. From the site, "Remember, a house is not a home until it can kill intruders in at least 7 different ways simultaneously!" Sounds like a challenge to me.

The game is, of course, a free-to-play setup with premium items available for real money. Since the game is currently in closed beta, the easiest way to get in is to make an initial purchase that will get you in immediately. If you don't want to pay any money to get into a beta program, you may also sign-up and wait to be chosen. Neither choice will hurt their feelings.

I am currently awaiting my beta key anxiously. This type of game is right up my alley.