It's not everyday you get to see an alien world this rich and vibrant and feel like some sort of human voyeur because of how close you feel to it all, but that's the nature of stereoscopic 3D coupled with the lush, imaginative world of James Cameron's Avatar.

Put these two things together in a game, at the hands of Ubisoft, and you have the potential to truly break the 'licensed-games-are-shit' trend. At this year's TGS, yours truly sat down with Art Animation Director, Brent George to see what's on offer and really walked away surprised and excited. Avatar The Game is both deep and bold in what it tries to deliver in the gameplay department, with the 3D-factor giving it a big gold star.

Click here for our full preview.

In our very first appointment for the 2009 Tokyo Games Show, we joined Ubisoft for a closed-doors session, kicking things off with a chat to Red Steel 2 Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe.

During a gameplay demonstration of the Wii-exclusive Red Steel 2, Jason also kindly answered all our questions about the upcoming game.

Watch it right here in the AusGamers video library.

Red Steel 2 is due in 2010. For more details and media, stop by our game page.

Dan and I were lucky enough to grab some actual gaming time with Microsoft's Project Natal, the controller-free, err... controller that takes face and body recognition and allows you to physically use your whole self to interact with videogames, and even the Xbox 360's Dashboard.

We also had a chance to sit in on a panel comprised of three of Japan's most celebrated game designers to hear their thoughts on the new technology, and what they think it might set them to craft in the not-too-distant-future.

For our full hands-on (or off), a run-down on the panel and our final thoughts on this bold new gaming venture, click here.

Last night AusGamers was lucky enough to be invited to an exclusive Dead Rising 2 event where we not only had a chance to hear the venerable Keiji Inafune, Megaman creator and basic Capcom genius, talk about the saddened state of the Japanese games industry, or get hands-on with a single-player demo of the game, but also partake in hands-on with the freshly revealed multiplayer addition, Terror Is Reality.

There is some seriously cool stuff coming your way, if you're into Zombie slaying, which we get right down into detail with here in our in-depth hands-on preview.

We've covered so many Western games, it seemed wrong to travel to Japan and not look at what's shaking their gaming tail feathers, and first on our list was Monster Hunter Tri, the series' debut on Wii and easily one of its prettiest residents to-date.

What's more is, we went in knowing pretty much nothing about the series, but are now on our way to being experts, thanks in large part to the number of changes made since the PSP release - changes Capcom are hoping the Western market will appreciate.

For the full run-down, click here.

It's the beginning of the second day of media access to the Tokyo Game Show, but before Dan and I head down to our appointments (today of which consists of a Project Natal session), I put together an all-new preview for Splinter Cell: Conviction based on my hands-on with the game yesterday as there are new pieces of information, plus you get an idea for the overall feel of the game. It is also accompanied with brand new screenshots, directly from the event.

So if you're keen to know about Fisher's latest exploits, click here for our TGS 2009 hands-on preview. As always for more info, you can also check out our game page.

As mentioned yesterday, today is officially the first day of the Tokyo Game Show. So far we haven't been disappointed, and while we're not even halfway through all of our appointments, we can give you a quick glimpse of things to come as well as a few small pieces of info.

This morning saw us hanging out with Ubisoft right off the bat. We sat down with Jason Vanderbergh, Creative Director for Red Steel and asked him some questions while being pulled through a demo - Wii owners will be very happy about this game.

We checked Avatar in a lot of detail and can tell you, until you're experiencing this game in 3D, you're not getting the full experience, and it is also a lot more than a simple movie tie-in action title; there's some incredible depth here and some great symbiotic game ideas I haven't seen implemented before.

Splinter Cell: Conviction was finally in playable form, and not just the demo level we had to watch hands-off at E3 - this was a new vertical slice of gameplay ripped right from the dev floor, bugs included - just for TGS. It looks awesome, plays awesome and plain is awesome. Stay tuned for a more detailed hands-on preview shortly.

R.U.S.E. is actually a lot more enticing and involved than any trailers or screens would have you believe. And similarly to Red Steel, we sat through a demo and asked a host of RTS-specific questions, but if you could marry solid RTS with amazing theater-of-war visuals (that put Supreme Commander to shame) and elements of the Civilization series, you'd just be beginning to scratch the surface here.

We learned Australia will see Zune Video arriving for the Xbox Live Marketplace (ergo your Dashboard) this Spring, with promised 1080p On Demand movie streaming (no specifics for film or television partners have been revealed locally, however).

And finally, we just sat in on a Project Natal Creative Developer panel which featured Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid), Keiji Inafune (Capcom) and Toshihiro Nagoshi (SEGA), all talking about their thoughts on Microsoft's new controller and interactivity device, and what they see as the future in gaming based on it - stay tuned for a more detailed write-up on that, too.

All great stuff so far, and even more to follow. So check back for more as we have time to make it available to you.

Kanpai!

In case you missed it earlier today, AusGamers checked out EA's pre-show press event for TGS here in Tokyo.

While overall, much of what we saw is very much the same stuff we've been seeing from them all year, there were a few tidbits of info that came out regarding Left 4 Dead (nothing yet regarding the state of the Australian RC), new Dante's Inferno boss and level reveals (that include neked ladies) and some great information from Battlefield Bad Company 2.

On top of all this was the announcement of Tsumuji (or "Whirlwind"), a brand new IP from EA for the Nintendo DS that blends cuteness, ninjas and The Legend of Zelda - all promising combinations that we can definitely tell you make this tantilising.

For the full event run-down, click here.

Some of you are most likely already aware AusGamers has made the trip to the Land of the Rising Sun for this year's Tokyo Game Show, continuing our commitment to the AusGamers community at large, and gaming coverage in general, to bring you the best possible local news, previews and interviews as well as provide you with all the latest media in the way of game trailers, art and screenshots.

Officially, TGS 09 opens its doors to gaming media tomorrow morning (we're only an hour behind), so stay tuned for coverage (thanks to my trusty Nokia N97 which came through in shining colours today, even on our old CMS) of anything relevant and worthy of immediate posting, but otherwise rest assured we'll be bringing you plenty of post-show information with much more depth throughout the show period and during the coming weeks.

For now, we've offered up a run-down of EA's pre-show press event, as well as more details for THQ's Darksiders thanks to the proactive peeps at THQ Australia. Finally, if there are any games you're super interested in knowing more about, drop us a Comment and we'll endeavour to see what we can gleam from the showfloor.

Kanpai!

THQ Australia were kind enough to not only update us with new Darksiders info, but also have said info presented by the game's creator and comic book legend Joe Madureira.

While we've played available builds of the game to death, it was revealed we'll be seeing it on store shelves early in 2010 with a January 7 street date. Moreover, the builds we've played to death have been shelved in favour of more changes for the good with Madureira also telling us combat system veteran, Eric Williams, of God od War I and II fame has been brought onboard to tighten the game's fighting system which has actually had some of its moves and combos stripped back because it wasn't "intuitive enough" and there was apparently too much they were trying to cram in. But it's all for the better.

New weapons and abilities were also revealed including the 'Abyssal Chain' which is a hookshot style 'Gear & Equipment' upgrade (basically a permanent dungeon reward), the Cross Blade which is a boomerang style mutiple target weapon (another Gear & Equipment upgrade) and the most awesome of all, Chaos Form which is an overlimit power up. Switch it on and War will transform into an awesome red, flaming, hulking, giant beast which, believe me, looks really, really cool. In total there are six permanent dungeon upgrades the rest of which will be revealed soon.

In all, Darksiders is fast becoming our most wanted holiday period release with today's demo and revelations only making us want it more.