The first thing we noticed when we stepped into the Showcase Pavillion at this year's E3: This is really quite small. The second thing we noticed: Everyone seems to be dancing! Everywhere we looked, there seemed to be someone (usually with a Wii Remote/Nunchuk in hand) waggling about to some vary hard-to-hear music. But don't just take our word or it. Check out our video montage of just some of the dancing fools on this year's show floor. See if you can guess which dancers are random attendees and which ones are PR people who've been assigned to pretend to be interested in dancing these same steps ALL DAMN DAY. Fun!

We've always had a rocky relationship with the Destroy All Humans series, which itself has had a rocky relationship with quality. The whole thing depresses us because of how much we want to be on board with the game. No fan of humans ourselves, their total annihilation is not something we're inherently resistant to. But there's only so much we can do, and ignoring mediocre gameplay isn't one of those things.

But this new trailer for Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furon has actually given us a little hope. Could this be the first DAH game to marry quality with a great premise? Absolutely. Could our enthusiasm be the direct result of the trailer's reliance on cinematics rather than much actual gameplay? Ab-so-lutely.

While it's difficult to make out the guttural baritone voice of the above trailer's narrator, we're pretty sure that this is an E3 teaser for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II. Those already invested in the series will be glad to know that the svelte Eldar will be making an appearance in the the RTS franchise's latest installment, and that they will apparently wield neat glowing swords. At least, we think they're swords. For all we know, the Eldar might just be on their way to a futuristic fantasy-themed rave -- after all, they are well-known among their contemporaries for being the galaxy's official party race.

Looks like we'll get to control a god of war War himself and do it with style in Vigil Games' open-world action game, Darksiders: Wrath of War. Considering that Joe "Mad!" Madureira of X-Men and Battle Chasers fame is the developer's creative director, the fact that it's looking smoking hot doesn't surprise us.

This new video of Darksiders features Madureira and Vigil's general manager, David Adams, talking about all of the nifty stuff you can see and do thanks to the game's open world nature. It's worth noting that the video is from the upcoming E3 demo of Darksiders, meaning that we'll get our hands on the game's latest milestone later this month to report on all the nitty-gritty (and pretty-pretty) details.

It's been a while (read: forever) since we've seen someone playing Frontlines: Fuel of War on our 360 friends list. But if a company wanted to re-energize (create?) a game's fans base, we can think of few ways to do it better than this: Five maps are being doled out for the game, all for free with the first being free. [Update: The other four maps will be sold in a pack at a later stage.] According to Microsoft mouthpiece Major Nelson, it just hit Xbox Live today.

This first entry adds an automatic shotgun, rocket jeep and Red Star Transport Helicopter and is called "The Boneyard," which, considering the fate of Frontlines (and Frontlines PS3) is a choice almost too hilarious to contemplate.

We love watching guys pummel each other into a gooey pulp just as much as the next group of gaming bloggers, but we've never understood the appeal of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Sure, a no-holds barred brawl in an octagonal cage of death sounds delightful, but we've found that many of these televised matches quickly end up turning into a bro-hug festival.

However, very few bro-hugs are featured in the above trailer for THQ's UFC 2009 Undisputed -- though there are bro-punches, bro-kicks and bro-body slams abound. True fans of the sport will no doubt be pleased by the trailer's accurate portrayal of a UFC match, though considering the lukewarm reception of most pre-existing UFC titles, we wouldn't blame them for being a cautious lot. Could THQ's offering be the first worthy contender in that narrow genre, or will it, like a flimsy-fisted first-time brawler, be forced to tap out?

This is precisely why we're not in video game marketing. If we were trying to get our open-ended gangster romp into the hands of millions, we'd be sure to have "Just like Grand Theft Auto IV!" emblazoned across not only the game's cover, but all of its magazine ads, television commercials and special edition lunch boxes. Of course, the major failure in our marketing strategy would be in its honesty -- our game, "Radical Car Nicking," really would just be Grand Theft Auto with slightly murkier textures.

That's why we're not in game design either, but we sure are good at copying and pasting quotes from THQ CEO, Brian Farrell! Like this one (via Next-Gen), from an investor meeting held on Wednesday in Chicago, where he said, "We think that we have a very differentiated product with Saints Row 2." Farrell acknowledged Rockstar's opus as "the leader in the genre," but noted that Volition's bandanna-wearing blockbuster would go in a different creative direction with "silly, over-the-top gameplay."

We've certainly seen shades of that in the most recent Saint's Row 2 trailer, what with the encouragement of public streaking and outrageous misuse of sewage. It's out -- and very differentiated -- this October.

THQ, despite receiving some bad press regarding their bottom line, still has investors -- as such, they still have presentations explaining to their investors how breathtaking their games are. We usually gloss right over said morsels of self-congratulation, as they rarely contain anything other than boring sales charts and demographic research, but a recent THQ investor informer actually contained some new, worthwhile information concerning the company's plans for next year.

Skipping past the slightly humorous claim that Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 is the unattributed "#1 Fighting Game", THQ revealed release windows for three of their "bigger" properties: an entry in their long-held but never used Ultimate Fighting Championship franchise (Spring '09), their youth-oriented crime fighting title Marvel Super Hero Squad (Fall '09), and a Fall 2010 release window for their adaptation of Dreamworks' upcoming film Master Mind, echoing the movie's initial release date. This information was immediately followed by hopeful sales charts to prove that the company will, in fact, still be in operation in 2010.

Should mobile phone games cater to the gender lines? Not according to THQ Wireless marketing director James Scalpello, who believes developing mobile games for girls is a "lost cause."

Speaking to CasualGaming.biz, Scalpello explains his logic across two points. He believes that games targeted to female players are patronizing to the female gaming audience, while also stating that gaming's not a priority to most girls. Claiming that gaming's more important to male audiences, Scalpello states that "girls [believe they have] better things to do. If you say so, James.

[Via CVG]

The latest "please get excited to buy us" trailer for Saints Row 2 takes some playful potshots at Grand Theft Auto IV. The video, which we've placed after the break, asks us if we'd like to do mundane tasks like bowling in GTA IV or more over-the-top things in Saints Row 2, like shooting sewage at pedestrians?

The trailer is a tiny bit awkward, acting as if THQ's game will be available right after players are done with GTA IV. We really don't know how long they expect us to be playing GTA IV, but considering Saints Row 2 doesn't come out until October, chances are we'll be done with it sooner than they anticipate.

THQ may not have the greatest press at the moment. OK, fine, its press has been really bad of late. But, let's take a step back to remember that there are real hard-working studios which make up this publisher. It's time to flip through the virtual pages of the company's family album and find out what studios are under the THQ bumbershoot.

(Feel free to check out our other family albums.)

Janco Partners' analyst Mike Hickey, after gazing deep into his crystal ball, reports many bad things in THQ's present and future. The biggest issue, Hickey believes, is the publisher's reliance on the recently delayed Saints Row 2. He surmises there is general internal conflict at the publisher, between corporate trying to salvage the company's finances, and developers trying to deliver a quality product. Hickey states THQ's guidance for this fiscal year is too aggressive and dependent on what THQ is calling "proven franchises," but he believes these titles are at risk due to delays, low demand and major marketplace competition.

Hickey spends some time comparing Saints Row to Activision's True Crime. He says that Activision once called True Crime a franchise (before it killed it) the same way THQ is touting Saints Row, but he believes a "franchise" has a "predictable level of consumer demand," which Saints Row just doesn't have. However, he believes it'll be THQ's best-performing owned IP this year. Hickey tells investors to just look back at THQs owned IPs for the last couple years and make their own conclusions about how things are going to go down this fiscal year.

THQ has confirmed to Big Download that ghetto fabulous Saints Row 2 will be poppin' caps on PC. Originally announced for Xbox 360 and PS3, the game doesn't have an official release date yet for com-pu-ters, but Gamestop lists it with the same launch date as the console version.

Saints Row 2 probably plays a significant role in THQ's financial stability, so it's not surprising to hear that the title will try to pick up cheddar from whatever platform it can find it on. THQ recently fired 200 employees and reported a $35 million loss in its last fiscal year. We'll holla back with an update if the publisher gives a release date soon.

THQ has broken our gold-plated hearts (and teeth) by announcing that it will delay the launch of Saints Row 2 until the company's third quarter, from the August 26 release date announced just last month until October 14.

According to Reuters, THQ cited marketing issues and product quality as the reasons for the delay, making us hope that the nearly two extra months of development will give Volition enough time to stamp out those remaining bugs. Additionally, while THQ believes that the delay will not have a negative impact on the company's fiscal 2009 performance, given the publisher's recent pink slip party and $35.3 million loss in fiscal 2008, there's really nowhere else to go but up.

[Thanks Bo]