Just when you think music gaming was dying, Harmonix is back to inject a vital dose of life. Rock Band 3 promises to be the most realistic music-gaming experience ever, with all the innovations seen in Rock Band Beatles joining a new instrument and a new Pro mode.

What you need to know?

Everyone’s talking about the new keyboard instrument, and rightly so. It’s a fully-functioning MIDI machine, with two-octave range, divided into four colored sections. As you progress through the difficulties, more ’actual’ notes come into play, and by the time you’re at Expert, it’s note-for-note. Much like the new Pro mode, which makes use of the new six-stringed guitar controllers to create something quite special indeed. Actual note-for-note guitar tracks, drumming with three new cymbals and three-part vocal harmonies. It’s a legitimate way to learn music. And with tunes from The Doors and even Bohemian Rhapsody to test your digits out with, it could be the finest Rock Band song line-up ever.

When do we get more?

Harmonix has been demoing the game at the recent E3 game show in Los Angeles, but it’ll be later in the year before we get wind of the full track listing and the extent of the musical awesomeness. Until then though, we’d strongly recommend hanging up your plastic guitars and drum sticks until the end of the year. You’re really not going to need them.

What else?

Rockband 3 will be compatible with all your previous downloadable content, as well as all the songs from Rock Band and Rock Band 2, meaning there’s a potential 2,000 tunes you can be rocking out to. That’s a ridiculous number. Harmomix has once again proven that it’s the master of the music game, and we’re happy to be able to tell you that there’s real innovation happening in this year’s update.

Starkiller is back! And if you thought the all-powerful Jedi would remain deceased thanks to his grizzly demise during the first game, then you’ve underestimated the creativity of the LucasArt’s money-spinning department. The trusting protagonist is reborn, thanks to cloners on Kamino, and is searching the galaxy for his former love interest Juno Eclipse and seeking his revenge on Vader who left him for dead. Expect the same third-person slicing and dicing, now enhanced with two lightsabers, as well as the ability to torture enemies with a variety of Force powers.

What do we know?

Even though the combat seems relatively unchanged from the original, graphically it seems far superior, with environments that look to be much shinier than before, and a smoother implementation of the ever-impressive Euphoria tech which empowers enemies with real-time self preservation, so they’ll cling onto beams, crates and each other in order to stay alive.

Anything else?

The PC version is being helmed by Aspyr Media who dropped the ball with the original, but as this arrives alongside the console versions, we remain hopeful. As long as we can daisy-chain Stormtroopers we’ll be happy.

10 years is a long time for any franchise but thankfully one of the original trading simulations is staging a comeback. Welcome back Patrician, gamers have missed you. Faithfully emulating the age-old problems of supply and demand, players will have to master procuring various goods during the Middle Ages, form reliable trade routes and battle the ever-present problem of piracy on the high seas.

What do we know?

Every town in the world of Patrician IV specializes in a certain commodity, whether that’s wood, cheese or wool, and it’s up to you to spread the wealth around, effectively buying low and selling high in order to build wealth, gather valuable resources and build your own cities in order to gain further standing in Europe. It isn’t as easy as all that though, as there are plenty of bandits, diseases, civil unrest, pirates and competing cities – such as accurately recreated versions of Cologne and London – to challenge your economic prowess.

Anything else?

Patrician IV’s as deep as you might expect from the genre, but the learning curve seems fair with more abilities and missions becoming available over time. Every effort has been made to make the series more accessible, with a smoother interface and a tutorial to explain every gameplay facet. This series will be unknown to many gamers, but with a new developer and a great-looking engine, this is an IP that’s set to become popular again very quickly.

APB is a PVP-oriented online experience where gamers can align themselves with one of two factions – Criminals or Enforcers. These two forces must then go at it, for the good of a rather boring setting of San Paro, split into three different areas, there’s the two action zones, Waterfront and Financial, where missions are carried out and battles are fought, and the peaceful social area where players can design new outfits, car liveries, tattoos, music, and give their avatar some expensive plastic surgery. It reminded us of an edgier version of the Sims – if EALA let off the shackles and let players design anything they wanted to.

The heart of the game is in the action zones, where players for either team carry out missions for a handful of contacts scattered around the city. As objectives are met, opposing squads made up of real players will be dispatched against you, transforming the tepid ‘travel here, interact with this dynamic there’, to tyre-squealing, gun-blazing, all-out action. Teams can accommodate six players to take out opposing members and civilians but not other random players, which means that griefing potential is definitely dialed down considerably on the 80-player servers.

Most of the game time revolves around driving or shooting, the former of which is great fun, but the latter just feels too loose. Damage caused to other players isn’t communicated properly, so usually you’ll just pepper away until somebody rag dolls.

Puzzling element

Perhaps the most puzzling element of APB is the payment structure, which offers players 50 hours of action zone play out of the box and more time can be purchased via a top-up fee. It’s bizarre because other than the PvP aspect, it’s really hard to excuse the additional cost of playing.

Realtime Worlds has created a game unlike any other, and it’s worth experiencing initially. There are some unforgettable moments to be had when teams work together – such as jumping off ramps to escape pursuers, or rolling into an ambush all-guns blazing. Viewed as a standard 50-hour experience, most players will get enjoy their time with APB until their time expires. As a standard third-person game, this online experience represents great throwaway fun, but when compared to the play-to-play heavyweights all vying for your cash, it lacks real depth.

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APB – Beta

Building a castle is an art form, which more than five million gamers have enjoyed over the past 10 years thanks to the British developers Firefly Studios and their iconic Stronghold franchise, and which still a large contingent of modern gamers are unaware of. That’s about to all change, as the third chapter in the long-running series is set to be bolder, more beautiful and more accessible than any of the games before it, and the developers have promised to return the series to its original charming roots, with the thrill of torturing villagers and catapulting livestock to their doom.

What do we know?

Gameplay will still be the mix of castle building and economy management as fans have seen before, but rather than utilizing the tile build structure, now everything is fully realized in 3D, allowing complete engineering control, and with the ability to build walls, keeps, peasant housing, etc in any direction, forming any pattern possible. 30 missions will feature in total, across two different military and economically centered campaigns set on many different maps, which will be threaded together by what’s sure to be a typically dark yet funny storyline involving the original Stronghold’s signature enemy, Wolf. The original antagonist is back, despite many believing he was dead, and he’s begun besieging and infiltrating castles at night, a big no-no during the middle ages.

Different times of day will feature during scenarios, but the team has just stopped short of implementing a full day/night cycle, so they can implement the strategic implications of fading light much more accurately. Time of day indicates the ratio of fog of war – or darkness of doom as we much prefer to call it – which can only be penetrated by fire via a scout’s torch or a lit hay bale. Battles in the game will hinge on these stealth dynamics, and army numbers will be in the hundreds rather than the thousands featured in the last sequel.

Firefly have once again tried to recreate medieval life as closely as possible, and an extension of this is the ability to look inside buildings. Whenever you spot a structure, a random room will cutaway to show peasants, lords or workers going about their business. Expect to see cows being milked, banquets being hosted and royalty evacuating their bowels – if you’re lucky. Or not, as the case may be.

Anything else to declare?

Socio-economic management has been streamlined, so players can spend more time doing things they like, such as adding new defensive measures to their castle and scoping out local areas for potential raiders. Multiplayer will also feature like the previous games, but interestingly, a powerful editor will be included, allowing fans to build their own maps, scenarios or castles – recreating Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings, for example. Supporting player content was definitely something Firefly wished to emphasis, and whether that’s via a mod support option or some kind of in-game portal remains to be seen. Despite only seeing a pre-alpha build, this is the type of Stronghold we all want to see – less complication, more charm and great-looking visuals. This is a game which will create plenty of interest, and we can’t wait to learn more.

Helghast’s looking more like Hoth than Hell in this snowy sequel to 2008’s fun-but-flawed first-person shooter. Picking up the story immediately after where Killzone 2 left off, Killzone 3 tracks the story of lone surviving members of ISA’s Alpha Squad continuing the war against the Helghast, as the death of Emperor Visari sends the planet into political turmoil. Levels are said to be 10 times the size of Killzone 2’s with each one filled with a ton of set-pieces. There’ll be more than just the Arctic-alike ‘Frozen Shores’ location you see in the screenshots, too – expect lush Helghan jungle and an orbital zero-G finale.

What do we know?

Despite the variations in location, Killzone 3 is still inimitably Killzone; the grey hues and overcast skies battle against the bright whites and orange glows to give the familiar war-torn look of its predecessor. But there’s been a subtle but significant change of direction for developers Guerrilla Games, who want Killzone 3’s story to be slightly more light-hearted than the hard-hitting somberness of its predecessor. The arsenal of weaponry will remain just as heavy though, with a new homing missile launcher known as the W.A.S.P. just one of Killzone 3’s plentiful new weapons guaranteed to get gun nuts revved up.

Anything else to declare?

Along with the new locales, there are new enemies to be found in Killzone 3, including Helghast equipped with jetpacks. Judging by the screens, you may just get the chance to use one too.