E3 2010 - Ubisoft's Smooth Operators: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - The UpStream

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

With over ten years of audio engineering experience, Nick's addition to PLuGHiTz Corporation is best served when he is behind the mixing board every Sunday night to produce the audio side of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Piltch Point and PLuGHiTz Live Night Cap. While mixing live every week, his previous radio show hosting experience gives him the ability to co-host as well, giving each show a unique flare with his slightly off-center, yet still realistic take on all things tech. An integral part of the show, you can find Nick always enveloped in coming up with new (and sometimes crazy) ideas and content for the show and you can always expect the most direct opinion on the stories that he feels need to be shared with the world. During the few hours where Nick isn't sleeping or working on ways to improve the company, he spends his free time going to hockey and football games and playing the latest titles on Xbox 360. Email him for his gamertag and add him today for a fun escape from the normal monotony and annoyance that the Xbox LIVE gaming community can sometimes be!

Jon is a F5 Live co-host and UpStream contributor as well as the Chief Cash Officer of PLuGHiTz Corporation. We don't know how he wears so many hats so well or how he still finds time to feed his need for all things tech but some questions are best left unanswered. If you're up for a challenge go find him on Xbox Live @shinobiJon and if you figure him out...let us know.

Josh has come from the Brazilian wilds to bring yet another perspective on the gaming industry as well as today's up-and-coming technology. You may have seen him at GameStop over the past two years, or if you're a lover of Largo High School Productions, you have seen him up on stage doing his thing the last 4 years. On occasion, you can catch him on Xbox Live mowing down zombies in Left 4 Dead or making it rain on Madden 2010.

The reason why the E3 conference marks my favorite time of year is because of all the awesome reveals that come along with it, and because it shows us where the gaming industry is heading the rest of the year. Since its original release on the October 27th, 2008 Little Big Planet was and still continues to be what I call a game changer, and with the release of Little Big Planet 2, it looks like the guys of Media Molecule are not pulling any punches for the sequel.

Last year we talked about how Sony was announcing there would be a premium level subscription for their PlayStation Network and even that they were surveying people, asking how much they would pay for such a service. Once we broke that news, Sony fanboys around the world were up in arms, exclaiming that they would never touch a PlayStation 3 again if that were to happen. At CES, Sony officially confirmed they would be announcing a tiered plan at E3 and that same group of people backed Sony completely, shouting from their rooftops that this was the best idea for Sony, which is something we at the show have been saying for years!

Sony's Move has been the under-appreciated technology of the past year. Microsoft's announcement of Project Natal, now Kinect last year at E3 completely overshadowed Sony's own ice-cream cone-shaped motion control system, now dubbed Move. The lack of interest is probably derived from the fact that their system requires that you hold something, like the Wiimote, whereas Kinect does not. After today's live demos it is clear that might not be the issue we all thought it was.

We saw a lot of game titles thrown around during the Sony's E3 Keynote this year but Twisted Metal for the PS3 was a truly shocking announcement. The series is the oldest of all the PlayStation titles dating all the way back to the original PlayStation system. I'm glad to say that the new version for the PS3 still has the feel of the original but includes some new life as well. There are new vehicles to look forward to as well as new game play modes.

Any section of a Press Briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles that begins with the confused statement "There are attractive people running around..." has got to leading into something interesting. Especially when it is muttered by Joel McHale, who was asked to host the briefing for a second year in a row, despite being the reason everyone hated the Ubisoft briefing last year.

During the latter part of Ubisoft's very strange Keynote I was excited to see a few minutes of game play footage for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier. This particular game focuses on close range combat and physicality so if you aren't the up close and personal type then Halo Reach is more up your alley and you can stop reading now. If you prefer to be all up in the enemies grill then you have a plethora of weapons and tactics to get the job done.

Last night the highlight of Ubisoft's presentation was showing us the trailer for the new installment of the Assassin's Creed series entitles Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The trailer at first seemed to be just like all the rest of the AC trailers. You see an assassin in the traditional all white assassin get-up, walking through a crowd, showing who he's after you know the deal. But then you see a shot of a guard spotting the assassin- who happens to be Ezio from the second game- and begins to take aim, until suddenly it seems the guard is mysteriously disposed of.

Okay, I didn't know Shaun White skateboarded until he came to the stage at Ubisoft's press briefing. Did you? Good, so at least we're on the same page when I tell you that he's apparently so good at skateboarding, he is working with Ubisoft for the third time to create Shaun White Skateboarding. Shaun White has always had a hand in his games and this one is no exception. He is providing voiceover work and even doing some of the motion capture in the creation of the title.