Perturbator - Future Club

Greyhat - Departure

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Michael Dooney

MP-18S - Silverstreak

FULTON RECOVERY SYSTEM

Screened for the press last week, the E3 gameplay demo of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain shows off a game primarily concerned with being an exciting toy. This is actually a bit of a shock - story trailers have so lasered in on grim dark themes like child soldiers and genocide suggesting something a little more constrained and directed. On the strength of this, The Phantom Pain is nothing of the sort. Kojima and co selling on an idea of an interactive GI Joe playset with all the gadgets and vehicles tucked away in the code just waiting to be discovered, then airlifted back to your customisable base.

Froggy Fresh - Street Rangers

MASTER BLASTER

After a couple of years of radio silence the He-Man documentary Toy Masters is finally being screened during August in Chicago. With any luck a wider release will soon follow. This preview reel details the making of the Masters of the Universe movie, a pretty nifty attempt to map cosmic Kirby ideas onto a flagging toy. Masters The Movie turned up in late '87, six years after the line launched and two years after they knocked the cartoon series on the head. Even as a kid I remember thinking Mattel had missed the boat.

Trypticon by James Cox

Lana Del Rey - Shades of Cool

Best Bond theme since Thom Yorke's Black Swan.

Kirby The Fifth Turtle by Kevin Eastman

THESE NINJAS ARE INTO PEPPERONI AND CHEESE

Scheduled to release around the same time as Michael Bay and Jonathan Liebesman's bomb is Turtle Power, a doc detailing the evolution of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from an instantly popular indie comic to an unkillable merchandise machine. As a kid I loved the Turtles toys for the same reason as Masters of the Universe, they were all so ugly. The first releases of the four hero turtles themselves were completely unlike the cuddly cartoon characters - jacked up veined biceps, demonic white eyes, and loads of assassination accessories.

I remember being on holiday in Spain when I was about 10 or 11 and coming across a series of Turtle figures I've never been able to dig up much information on. Presumably they were bootlegs? It was a range of gimmick figures that had Turtles characters dressed up in a variety of American period clothing. I think one of the turtles was dressed as a Native American? Maybe Don as a cowboy? The one I do remember though was Shredder's henchman Bebop in a Confederate uniform complete with musket.* Even to a British child that seemed utterly bizarre. The shop that had the figures was on the way to a restaurant my Mum and Dad liked, so I had a few opportunities to rummage through the line whilst trying to convince myself I didn't want them and was now much too old for toys.

*UPDATE! After a quick browse online I might be misremembering 1992's Private Porknose Bebop which had the teenage mutant warthog dressed up as member of the Third Reich, complete with a green plastic StG 44.

E3 2014 Mario Maker - PIRANHA PLANTS

The most purely wonderful thing at E3 not called No Man's Sky or Batman falling off a building, Mario Maker lets players build their own 8-bit Super Mario Bros levels. As a design tool Mario Maker looks pretty straightforward, using the touchscreen on the Wii U gamepad for some dragging and dropping. This trailer shows off player designed levels overstuffed with enemies in easy, point hoarding positions. Presumably it'll be equally easy for sadists to design their own impossible, Shobon Action style nightmares.

E3 2014 Hyrule Warriors - PRESS Y

Hyrule Warriors fuses Tecmo Koei's Dynasty Warriors with The Legend of Zelda. When you think about it RPGs provide a good frame work for a roaming beater - they tend to be full of distinctive, mass-produced enemies, usually tackled in groups, with bosses hanging around on the periphery. Joining Link is an armoured version of Zelda. Fingers crossed we get to play as big bully Ganondorf.

E3 2014 Bayonetta 2 - SCHOOL RUN

Platinum Games serve up another exciting title on a console I do not own. Thanks guys! In the first Bayonetta, the titular character beat up the Heavenly host, Bayonetta 2 dumps her in hell to battle a series of bosses that could have sprung from the first Devil May Cry. I wonder if there's been a push to tone down the stripper pole sexuality of the original now that Nintendo are publishing? Bayonetta's new haircut and outfit are borderline respectable.

E3 2014 Yoshi's Woolly World - CRAFTY

A quick glance at Nintendo games and it's easy to come away thinking they're Fisher Price toys for babies. Stick around for the entirety of this trailer for Yoshi's Woolly World and it becomes clear this is a game heaving with hidden depths. You can amble along bouncing off the walls and delighting in the plinky plonky music or you can scour the landscape hunting down secret collectibles and using power-ups to find new paths. It's up to you.

E3 2014 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - DIAMOND DOGS

Four minutes of absolutely bonkers cutscenes taken completely out of context? It must be Hideo Kojima's trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain! With a horn shaped lump of shrapnel lodged in his head, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater hero Naked Snake jets around the world sticking his nose into genocide, getting himself covered in blood, and wiping the ashes of his fallen comrades all over his face. Hideo Kojima is tackling serious issues!

E3 2014 Batman: Arkham Knight - NO SHIV

Is that Kevin Conroy back to complete Rocksteady Studio's Batman trilogy? Looks like the malformed sidequest Batman: Arkham Origins is being completely ignored, we're back playing as an older Bruce, complete with a hovertank Batmobile that might have been modified to deal with riots. Verticality seems to be a bit of a buzz mechanic at this year's E3, Far Cry 4 and Sunset Overdrive both feature characters scrambling ever higher to get the best vantage point. Neither of those games even come close to the delights seen here though - leap off a Wayne Enterprises skyscraper and you can paraglide through a version of Gotham City apparently designed by MC Escher.

E3 2014 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - SURE THING

With The Last of Us Remastered half-way out the door Naughty Dog can knuckle down on the next Nathan Drake game. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End features an older Drake cautiously moving through a very pretty jungle. Given the recent high-level reshuffling at Naughty Dog to accommodate the promotions of some key The Last of Us dev, I think it's fair to assume that this Uncharted will skew a little more sweaty and desperate.

E3 2014 The Last of Us Remastered / Grand Theft Auto V - HD REMIX

It isn't just Microsoft that gets to rummage through its back catalogue for quickie prestige releases. First up Sony have a spruced up version of last-gen stand out The Last of Us ready to go. Incidentally, I wouldn't watch this trailer if you haven't already beaten the game - that spoiler warning ain't there for decoration.

Rockstar also have a max settings version of Grand Theft Auto V waiting in the wings. Initially announced as a PS4 title, GTAV has since been confirmed for Xbox One and PC as well. I wasn't a massive fan of the game, as it churned on the storyline bottomed out and mission design erred on the irritating, but I'll be damned if I don't want to play this again on my PS4. They've got us by the balls with HD re-releases!

E3 2014 No Man's Sky - ELITE

For all the AAA bluster at this year's E3, nothing even comes close to the scope and ambition of Hello Games' No Man's Sky. Players are able to explore worlds with procedurally generated landscapes - if this clip is anything to go on, think a series of prehistoric Proteus planets - before jumping into a little spaceship and blasting off into the cosmos to do it all over again somewhere else. Mix in, at the very least, sauropods and an insistent electronic beat, and you have what looks like a masterpiece in the making.

E3 2014 Let It Die - GUY SAVAGE

Let It Die is Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufactures's PS4 exclusive. Details are scarce, and the trailer isn't much help, but it looks like the Killer7 studio are taking a pass at a competitive online version of Rockstar's sociopathic sneak 'em up Manhunt.

E3 2014 Abzu - POD

Abzu is the new game from a pair of ex-Journey devs, Matt Nava and Austin Wintory. Like their previous game, Abzu seems to be about being a tiny moving part in a vast, otherworldly landscape. The diver character seems to plunging deeper and deeper into the oceans, uncovering increasingly bizarre locations. It looks a bit like Novotrade International's Mega Drive classic Ecco the Dolphin, a rock hard exploring game in which you could hang out with stranded Blue Whales.

E3 2014 Dead Island 2 - HIT 'EM UP

I wish the Dead Island games played like their trailers looked. Instead, the level of interaction usually boils down to the player endlessly encircling unkillable zombies, thwacking them over and over again with a broken oar. Hopefully new team Yager Development (Spec Ops: The Line) have a few tricks up their sleeve.

E3 2014 Far Cry 4 - WHAT TEMPLES ARE OUT THERE?

The Sony conference was on pretty late last night. Think I was up until nearly 4 watching it. I had a vague idea that you could invite people to play Far Cry 4 with you on PS4 without them even owning the game. That doesn't sound right does it? Turns out it's true though. So if you find yourself fresh out of elephants and in need of a lift off the Gyro Captain, start spamming invites.

E3 2014 Bloodborne - PRAISE THE SUN

Demon's Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki bounces back with Bloodborne, Sony's hardcore gamer coup. Rumours of a secret Souls project have been flying around ever since some bored / enterprising individual spent time cross-checking the credits for Dark Souls and Dark Souls II. Turns out key personal were unaccounted for on the sequel.