I liked the way the Nintendo breakdown went compared to the Microsoft, so I'm going with some more BULLET POINT MADNESS, stream of consciousness for this one. Before we get to it, I'm expecting a whole lot of Playstation Move talk, much like we got with the Kinect focus during the Microsoft presser yesterday. Sony also seems to be making a big push with 3D (helps when you have 3D TVs coming out to sell as well) so I'm guess we will get a lot of that. I'm pretty on record as being anti the new 3D trend, but maybe Sony will change my mind a little bit. Also, I'm not a handheld gamer, so I will probably gloss over PSP announcements. If you are looking for those, sorry kids. Also worth noting, I do not have G4 in HD, so I may not get all of the graphic greatness of some of the videos. Come on down the nerdy rabbit hole with me wont you?:

• Before this gets going, I'm hoping that Sony uses Kevin Butler for the press conference today. He's been one of the better marketing campaigns I can remember recently. The video game commercials have all been very funny, and it will go over a lot better than someone with a thick accent we can't understand, or someone like Joel McHale (whom I really enjoy typically) who doesn't really know what they're talking about or makes fun of socially awkward people that don't know how to respond. Their normal guy, Jack Tretton, does a good job, but Butler amuses me greatly.
• Rowdy montage to start, quick clips of games from all genres, people playing said games, even some PS2 stuff, and Kevin Butler taking shots at Xbox in the Move ad (very funny, see here).
• Jack Tretton it is to lead off, and an early shot at Xbox for making their audience wear bizarre robes during their Kinect event. Lots of talk about the big year Sony had and the momentum they bring in. Jack hands off to Kaz Hirai, one of Sony's big guns that always shows up at E3.
• Lots of 3D talk from Hirai to start. h8 u James Cameron, this is all your fault. 4 games are already available for download right now that will play in 3D: Super Stardust HD, Pain, Wipeout HD, and Motorstorm Pacific Rift. 20 created natively in 3D will be available by March, 2011.
• First game we will get a look at...in 3D... is Killzone 3. Admittedly I haven't played the first 2, so I don't know a ton about the game other than it's a rowdy FPS. Everyone in the arena puts on their 3D glasses, meaning all of us at home get nothing. The video still looks pretty, not as blurry as you'd expect for watching something in 3D w/o glasses. We get dropped into a war and quickly attacked by bad dues rocking jet packs and rocket launchers. Great graphics, no HUD outside of crosshairs, and interesting approach. Nice, next we steal a jetpack of our own and start flying. I really wish I was watching this in HD right about now as the graphics look great, especially the water effects as you travel over the sea. As you get hurt in the game the now popular blood outline effect is used, as well as the audio becoming muffled as we've seen in several games lately. Nothing to show ammo, life, or anything like that. Part 1 done, now we are manning a turret in a flying transport, storming a structure that looks like an off-shore drilling platform. There is a LOT going on with no sign of slowdown, gotta love that Cell processor. Releases 2/11, PS3 exclusive. Also fully compatible with Move at launch. We didn't see any of that today though.
• A long list of games that will be in 3D, and Move as well. Both NBA 2k11 and MLB:The Show were mentioned, NBA for 3D, MLB for both. The thought of playing MLB:The Show in 3D while using the Move as a bat...very very intriguing. I hope we see some of that, but doubtful. Now time to put our glasses back on...3D just isn't stopping.
• It's time for another montage! I'll try to get as many as I can. We get Motorstorm, Eyepet, MLB: The Show 10(this year's), Fight (the Move fighting game we saw last year), Killzone 3, Tumble (looks like Jenga/BoomBlox), Crysis 2, Mortal Kombat (with a ROWDY fatality), Gran Turismo 5 (allegedly...) The Sly Collection (all the old Sly Cooper games I guess?).
• Jack comes back to talk about...Playstation 2? It's still kicking. As well as how much people play PS3 and the different ways they use it. Now we get to the Playstation Move portion of the show with another VP.
• They really push that this is a 1:1 motion capture. We get a video of people talking about how awesome it is. Pretty useless fluff video. Finally it's time to see some games
• First up is something called Sorcery, a 3rd person action/adventure made just for the Playstation Move (PSM or Move from here out). We get a PIP of the guy doing the demo and the game to show us how the game picks up his motions. Right off the bat, it looks like it is tracking really well with his motions. If you are a Harry Potter fan, well, 1st off I hate you, but you will probably really enjoy this game that has you running around and shooting spells at stuff. You can also transform into different animals with potions to get to different parts of the level, we see a rat to start. A good demonstration of the tech, but a game that looks a little goofy for my personal tastes. Too bad they didn't wait a few years for that Ghostbusters game, it could be awesome with Move. This is slated for Spring of 2011.
• My real question for Move will be the price point. Kinect at $150 sounds way too much for my liking. Oh snap, it's time for Move and sports games. Now you are talking my language.
• We get Andrew Wilson from EA sports to talk about Tiger Woods 11. Is there where I put the Tiger Woods Penis/Move controller joke? Yes, yes I think so. To be honest, one of the main reasons I might want the Move is for Tiger Woods. Off the bat, it looks like there is a slight delay between his movements and the on screen character. I'm willing to chalk it to the setup they have at the conference. I'd love to give this thing a try as it looks awesome. The ability to pretty much actually play courses like Pebble Beach and Blackpage? Sounds pretty awesome. It will also negate the frequent problems of TW games of shooting 20 under every round after about 2 weeks. Can I get one more sports game, please?
• Nope, we get a game video called Heroes on the Move. Ratchet & Clank, Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, and some Turtle (missed name) all in one game. Looks like a platforming type with all 6. We also get an announcement of a marketing connection with CocaCola, and it sounds like they'll be putting out a lot of PSM demos.
• KEVIN BUTLER! The crowd goes wild as Sony's favorite mascot shows up. It looks like Kevin is gonna take over for awhile, everyone, me included, are very excited. In true fashion, he starts off with an instant dig on the Xbox Kinect event again. Now we are getting what sounds like Kevin's gaming manifesto.
• "We can all box using game characters that have important features like....arms, and necks." Oh Kevin, never stop mocking other consoles. Now we are getting some Patton style music in the background. Hilariously well done speech, even though it added absolutely nothing info wise.
• Launch details for Move: 9/19 for the good old US of A. The Move Controller is just $50 if you already have a PS3 and Eyetoy. For some reason I guess I thought the Eye came as part of the deal, bundles should be next up. The Navigation controller (PSM's version of the Wii Nunchuck essentially) is $30. They also have a bundle that comes with one Move (no nav controller), the Eye, and a game called Sports Champions for $100. If you have no PS3, they have that same last bundle with a PS3 for $400. Nice play, the games are only $40 for Move.
• Time for another montage for the Move. We get: Tiger Woods 11, Brunswick Pro Bowling, The Fight, Sports Champions (we see beach volleyball, archery, ping pong), Start the party (minigame fest), Singstar +Dance, Eyepet, Heroes on the move, TV Superstars (minigames), Socom 4, Time Crisis, The Shoot, Resident Evil 5, Lord of the Rings, Tron Evolution, and Sorcery.
• So to hit pause for a second, let's say you are like me and have a PS3 but no Eye. You are looking at the very least at $130 to get the eye and one of each controllers. If you want a set of 2 to play with friends, that means you are going a minimum of $210, with Move games coming in at $40 for those games that are just for that, or $60 for the big games. Yikes, that is still pretty expensive. As of right now, I don't know if I can justify that, the same way I thought $150 + $60 games would be too much for Kinect. Time will tell I guess. Game on.
• Now we get the PSP, meh. We get a new ad campaign with the black kid from Role Models who's name is Marcus (either for real or just in the ads), who is very funny. Pretty amusing ad with Butler and Marcus. A new Metal Gear is coming our for PSP, as well as a game called Invizimals, that claims to use augmented reality with a little PSP eye add-on. PSP is also getting a God of War game called Ghost of Sparta. We will also get Tron, Kingdom Hearts, Toy Story 3, Ace Combat, 3rd Birthday, and UFC Unleased 2010. Time for, you guessed it, MONTAGE 4: The PSPening.
• After that, we get some stats on the Playstation Network. Sony is giving Nintendo a run for most random stat drop-ins. Note: this is not a stat you want to lead (stats about stats? Damn I'm meta). Whoa, the Sony booth is accessible on Home? That's pretty cool, and an actual reason for me to fire up Home for the first time since it launched.
• Now we get into the Play Create Share brand, which so far feature Little Big Planet and Mod Nation Racers. Nice lead in to a section on Little Big Planet 2. I have the 1st, and to be honest, I'm not creative enough to get everything out of it that some could I think. It was a fun game with some really cool ideas, and an insane amount of customization for those that are into that sort of thing. New features: Sackbots (NPCs, this will be huge as several levels required 2 people to get all the stuff, which could hamper you if you didn't have a friend at the ready and didn't want to play w/ randos), grappling hook (!!), new videos and directing options, and a lot of new game types. They say you can create everything from racing games to shooters. We see a button mash race to start, followed by a ball sumo battle(think the mini game from Mario Party where you try to knock the others off the side, or those old spinner top games). Finally we get a Rocket arena level where you fly around on jetpacks with something called the "createnator" on your head. You can set this to shoot out several different options, here they are shooting rockets at each other. I'm sorry for the rough description, but it's kind of hard to talk about without seeing it. Once again, for really creative people this game is more a studio than a game. For people like me though, you can get all sorts of random things to play around with that can be many different types of fun. They then give a montage of games people created in just 24 hours without any outside tutoring. Pretty awesome.
• Now we get info on the oft-rumored pay to play PSN. The good news is, apparently everything you can do for free now, including online multiplayer, will stay free. This is excellent news. I admittedly don't do a ton of online play on my PS3 (mostly on Xbox for that), but I didn't want to have to start paying for something I was used to for free. It's also great for the ever important roster updates for my sports games. So what are you paying for with Playstation Plus?: PSN+ get exclusive features and content, allegedly hundreds of dollars worth of digital content, early demos, beta selections, themes, menus, PSN games, and more. I need to hear more, right now it doesn't sound like it's really worth it. $50 for a year, $17 for 3 months. Everyone gets 3 months for free though. Gotta love the old drug dealer method. In the first month PSN+ will have: Full PSN game Wipeout HD, demo for Infamous 2, PS1 game Rally Cross, map packs, DLC levels, etc. You only get this stuff for the length of your subscription though. Smart Sony. Don't think you can wait 6 months, buy a 3 month deal, then download whatever you want and keep it forever. If you end your subscription, your PSN+ stuff goes away. You also get the Qore show they put out. Now it looks like it's time for straight PS3 games, no Move or anything like that. I'm excited now.
• We start off with EA (love you EA). 2 titles will have exclusive content for the PS3. First off is Medal of Honor. (Sidenote, the dude talking about MOH has an epic beard.) Time for a trailer. We get a montage of different areas and different units. Some ATV play as well, leading in to an array of awesome silent melee kills. Not much from the video though. On 6/28 they are putting out videos from the contacts they used to help make the game on their experiences. Could be interesting, but doesn't have a ton to do with the game. Now for some Multiplayer talk. MP for this game was made by DICE, who also did Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Personalized weapon customization and unlockable beards (\m/). Now we get to see a MP map. We start with a predator missile kill (looks a lot like MW2, expect a LOT of comparisons between the COD and MOH games in the next few months). We see several kills including assault rifles, grenade launchers (noob tubes if you will), handgun sidearms, and RPGs. Each kill gives a pop up telling you how many XP were earned, with more for things like headshots ore revenge (sound familiar?). Once again the beta starts on June 21st, so we will find out really soon. The full game launches on 10/12/10. Exclusive: A limited edition of the game that includes a remastered HD version of MOH: Frontline.
• Now for Dead Space 2, we will be getting a live demo. Note, I haven't played the first one, I'm not big into games that are full of startling/scary moments, they just don't do it for me. We start of with our hero going underground in a space station as he's being shot at from outside a window. He instantly gets attacked by some kind of giant alien spider thing. The game is very pretty, and very creepy. Short demo, but it looks really good graphically. Exclusive: Another limited edition with Dead Space Extraction, that has Move support. Obviously we will also be getting the rest of EA and EA Sports games.
• Back comes Jack telling us to welcome a new developer for the first time. Oh wow! The 3 huge screens are taken over by a odd circle and a familiar voice from the Aperture Science Facility to deliver us a surprise. For those that don't catch the reference, Aperture is the evil company in the Portal game from Valve that was featured in the Orange Box w/ Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 a few years ago. We get a guy from Valve out now, which is funny as they haven't been big on consoles lately. Looks like that's gonna change. Portal 2 is coming to PS3! Wow, Steam itself is also coming to the PS3. Valve guy says the PS3 version will be the best console version of Portal 2, and now we get our first look. GLADOS' voice comes on in a now destroyed Aperture facility that begins to rebuild itself. This is not good for you. It will be coming in 2011. Awesome. The game is gorgeous looking. If you haven't played the 1st one, you need to, it's a very cool game.
• Now we get another Final Fantasy game. Wait, it gets more boring, it's another Final Fantasy MMO. Could not care less, fast forward time.
• Mafia II with exclusive day 1 content. For free PS3 users will get "loads of new missions and hours of arcade style gameplay."
• Now some Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, with exclusive mission pack for PS3, as well as multiplayer. The video yesterday during the Ubisoft presser was amazing, you need to find it if you haven't yet. Now we get a look at some of the multiplayer, which we haven't seen yet. It will be Templars vs Assassins. Rowdy Templar smoke bomb, A's with ability to transform avatars mid game apparently. The video shows a lot of different looking people performing lots of different types of kills, but no real explanation on how it works. 11/16/10 is the release date here.
• MONTAGEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! We get bits of: Socom 4, Killzone 3, Medal of Honor, Dead Space 2, Mafia 2, Madden 11, Nba 2k11, Tiger Woods 11, Sports Champions (PSM), The Fight (PSM) NCAA Football 11(GO IRISH!), Eyepet, Start the Party (PSM), Little Big Planet 2, Echochrome 2, Heroes on the Move, Gran Turismo 5(allegedly), ModNation Racers, Motorstorm Apocalypse, True Crime, Marvel vs Capcom3, PixelJunkShooter 2, Mortal Kombat, Castlevania, DeadNation, Sorcery(PSM), DC Universe, Sly Collection, Tron Evolution, and Final Fantasy XIV.
• Now we are going to get some Gran Turismo 5. I keep saying allegedly because this game has been delayed for, I don't even know how long, 4 years? I'm starting to doubt we will ever see it, but let's see what we get here. Man, once again I wish I was watching in HD right now, because this looks freaking gorgeous, even in SD. We get a ton of different cars driving around. You will get the TopGear Test Track as well. The cars do appear to take damage finally. Tons of different locales around the world as well. A date!!! 11/2/10...allegedly we will finally get GT5. It will also be playable in full 3D from day 1.
• Nice, now we get a look at Infamous 2. The first one was an awesome game. If you haven't played it, a freak accident gives an already acrobatic dude who is good at freeclimbing superpowers to control electricity. Definitely worth trying out if you haven't yet. Great graphics as always. Whoa, new powers too: It looks like you have a sword type object, the ability to create whirlwinds, and ice powers! Very cool looking video. We don't get a solid date, just 2011. Now another surprise...
• TWISTED FREAKING METAL!!!!!!!!!! These old car combat games were insane back in the day, now it looks like we're getting it again on PS3. Awesome call Sony. We get a live demo that starts out with a player in a helicopter! Oh man. Everything in the city looks destructible. Up to 16 player online multiplayer. You also have team based weapons apparently. We now get a team objective based game mode called Nuke. It looks like a capture the flag type game, but instead of a flag you take the other team's captain to a missile launcher to shoot into the other team's base. Looks pretty fun. Some awesome surprises.

A pretty solid press conference overall. Both Portal 2 and Twisted Metal were big surprises. Sony has a lot of good looking games coming out, but really seemed to push Move and 3d. Maybe if I hit the lotto I'll happily jump on board the 3D train, but as of right now, I just don't know. Plus, the thought of having to put on those damn glasses to play games is not something I look forward to. I had a headache after 2 hours of Alice in Wonderland 3D. I don't know if I want that in my daily life. As for Move, the price point sounds better than Kinect did, at least until you add up what it will take for multiple. I need to see more to convince me right now. Tiger Woods seems like the best bet, but that's a minimum of $160, whereas I could try the same essentially on the Wii for just $50. I guess with more info it will be easier to tell. Still, a very solid press conference.

Nintendo E3 Press Conference: My Thoughts

So today as opposed to writing up my thoughts after watching the press conference, I'm going to just go flow of consciousness style as I watch, and then throw in thoughts at the end. That's right kids, BULLET POINT MADNESS. I expect it will read much more the way my Twitter feed did during the EA and Ubisoft pressers yesterday. Forgive me if I run on at parts, but hey, that's just how it goes sometimes.

Thoughts before it happens: I'm mainly hoping for a new Zelda, a mystery Mega Man appearance, mostly some new Kirby, and essentially more "hardcore" type games that aren't just a waggle fest. Also, if I trail off during the handheld stuff, I apologize, but I just don't care about the DS, DSI, 3DS, Game Boy Color, whatever we are on right now. In the interest of full disclosure, I was a Nintendo kid all through my youth. I never had Genesis, from NES through N64, I was pretty loyal. I've had a Wii since '07, so I've had a decent amount of time with the console.

Here we goooooooo

• The big man, Reggie Fils-Aime is out to start, not too surprising. But with a Powerpoint style leadoff? Boooooooooooo. Come on Nintendo, start with something awesome.
• Alright, off to video. Now THAT is what I'm talking about. Big N is coming out guns blazing with a brand new Zelda. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
• Miyamoto is on screen to take us through some of the game. Miyamoto wants us to use the Wiimote as a sword and Nunchuck as a shield. We get some gameplay, with the controls on the screen...I wonder if that will happen in the real game or just for this demo. The guy doing this doesn't get it. Cue myssssssstery Miyamoto showing up for real to show us what's really up. Miyamoto gives us a little run through, claiming 1:1 sword to Wii motion, but he has some issues...this doesn't bode particularly well. I'm gonna chalk that more to it being an older guy and some likely delay with how they have the presentation set up. The game does look very pretty as far as Wii games go. A decent amount of gameplay, but it starts to come crashing down. Miyamoto claims they are picking up a lot of interference they hadn't before. With all the people w/ phones, computers, etc, it's possible. Hopefully that was what led to the control delays. This could make for a rough rest of the conference though if this keeps up. Even with the hangups, this game is a must have for me, and I'm not even in the "Ocarina of Time=bestest evarrrrrrrr" camp. No solid release date given, only sometime in 2011. Fine with me, I want them to take as much time as they need to make this game epic.
• Reggie back on, says they want new experiences for "Everyone." I'm a little worried we will be going into the reallllll casual right now. Going into sports, name checks Madden, PES, and MLB2k10. NBA Jam mention!!!! Damn, we will see it on the show floor, apparently not here. You damn cocktease Reggie, give me what I want. New Mario sports game, these are usually very fun, love Strikers Charged and Baseball.
• Video shows us Volleyball, then Hockey (first ice, then on a beach), then Dodgeball, now Basketball. Game is called Mario Sports Mix, coming in 2011. If these have some depth, this could be great.
• Oh snap, some Reggie flavored smack talk aimed at the doubters. Wear it people that thought the Wii wouldn't keep selling consoles, games, or play them. Lame self promotion, even in the face of declining sales. Can't blame them for taking on those who say people just play Wii Sports and Fit. Claim Mario Kart and New Super Mario Bros are "bridge titles" that take the new casual type players deeper down the rabbit hole. Time for a new bridge game: Wii Party
• 13 different party game modes including Board game Island (think Mario party), etc, with 70 different mini games. Good call, this will likely sell quite well. Released in times for the holidays...duh.
• New Just Dance game....this sums up my thoughts pretty well.
• Now getting a new Golden Sun game for Nintendo DS. Apparently lots of people got very excited for it back in the day, I've never heard of it though, so don't know what to tell you. Looks like an RPG for the DS if you are into that sort of thing. Fast forwarding.
• FUCK YEAH GOLDENEYE!!!!!! The same video I posted the other day from Kotaku is shown here. Daniel Craig is in as opposed to the far superior as Bond, Pierce Brosnan. I don't know if you can call it a true "remake" as it looks like we will get some different levels. It will be here this holiday. Get your friend codes ready, I'm going to prox mine the hell out of all of you.
• Next we get a game called Epic Mickey. This will definitely sell well for those with young kids that don't necessarily know a ton about games but trust the brand. It looks like a toned down, Disney only, amateur hour version of Kingdom Hearts. As opposed to swords you use paint and paint thinner to add/take out the game world. Meh.
• Kirby mention with the creator of Kirby and Smash Bros. YES Reggie says it's time for Kirby to return. Called it son! But Reggie says we will be getting a new type of game, Kirby's Epic Yarn. Strange animation style, everything looks, well, knitted. Kirby is shown transforming into things like an Umbrella, spaceship, etc, as well as using a whip to grab opponents and markers to adjust the environment. Not exactly what I wanted, but it could be very cool. Kirby whips as opposed to sucking things(teehee). Will be released this fall.
• Next up, a Dragon Quest RPG for DS. Don't care, FF.
• Now we get Metroid:Other M from the Team Ninja guys. This looks pretty freaking awesome. Fast paced action as well as what you expect after the Prime games. It will be here very soon too, August 31.
• Whoa!!! A new Donkey Kong Country type game! Nintendo is really crushing things right now. Gameplay is the same type of 2d side-scroller as the N64 games. Similar type of action too, barrel shooting, mine cart level, ability to switch between Donkey and Diddy. Donkey Kong Country Returns will be out this holiday. Man, there are a ton of great looking Wii games coming out this holiday season.
• We close with a new game changing type thing: Nintendo 3DS. What can I say, I don't really care about handhelds or 3D. Let's see what we get though. Hey, at least we wont need 3D glasses for it to work. 2 screens, the top one bigger than the lower, allegedly showing us 3D w/o glasses. Lots of talk from a designer that I can barely understand. Highlights: Better graphics, 3d pictures/video, nice a Kid Icarus game. Too bad we won't get one on Wii. Looks like you will be able to communicate between 3DS' as well. We end with a rundown of 3rd party support, and they have some big names. Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Saint's Row, Madden and Kingdom Hearts are among the games announced. Pretty impressive lineup for the handheld.
• Time for the recap of all the big announcements. Reggie boasts that they said they had something for everyone, and with the wide range of games, it certainly seems like it.
• To close, an army of hot girls comes out with 3DS attached to them by a bizarre harness. Each person in the audience is having someone walk to them to try the thing out...I'm sure that's not going to be awkward at all. They are also bringing some Wii's out on the floor for people to test out Zelda

I'm stunned quite honestly. The Wii had several surprise announced games today, including a new Kirby, Donkey Kong, and a revamped Goldeneye. It looks like I will be buying several more Wii games than I expected in the near future. After last year's pretty universally panned press confrence, Nintendo came out and just stole the show. Well freaking done, Nintendo. Some great games were announced today.

Microsoft E3 Press Conference: My Thoughts

Well, if there’s one thing we should realize by now, it’s that the Wii really was a gamechanger. Sadly, this may not necessarily be a good thing. Xbox’s press conference this morning leaned VERY heavily on the once named Project: Natal, now being called Kinect. Certain parts of Kinect look pretty cool. The Minority Report style menu navigation is straight up future awesome. They also showed off a lot of voice control ability for everything from movies to music.

The games that were shown off though…well, they were either a dead ringer for Wii Sports, or Wii Fit. Joyride, the game announced last year for free is now under the Kinect umbrella as well. Kinetic Sports and Adventure look like they could be amusing, but they are still essentially just Wii rips. I can hardly blame Xbox, they know Nintendo has been printing money with the inroads they’ve made with the Casual gaming market, why not get a piece themselves. The workout games (I think 3 of the 1st 15 games announced would count as one) will appeal to the soccer mom crowd as well as letting Microsoft fight some of the gaming—>obesity advocates. Kinect Adventures reminds me of the old Nick Arcade show. Goofy, little replay value, don’t see it being worth much. Dance Central is, well, come on, it’s a dance game. Some may enjoy this one, but it’s not gonna work for me. Props for using Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison” on the demo though. One of the most amusing little games shown was Kinectimals. If you can’t guess from the name, it’s you, playing with animals via the Kinect. You may recognize this as say, Nintendogs. However, credit to Xbox for upping the cute factor by using a small child and an adorable baby tiger. Would I ever play this, God no, but again, Xbox is looking to get in on the new market that the Wii opened video games up to. The one Kinect game that had a little bit of potential was the Star Wars game. If it can actually give you a solid lightsaber/force power gameplay experience, it could be pretty sweet. The Forza demo looked very pretty, but I don’t see a sim racer working very well with this type of tech.

For an announcement I actually cared about a little bit, Trey Wingo and Josh Elliot of Sportscenter showed up to announce an exclusive deal (Full story from Kotaku here) between ESPN and Xbox. There is a lot of potential here, especially for those who currently can’t access ESPN 3 like me due to their service provider (h8 u Time Warner). The ability to choose your team, do trivia, etc isn’t really a huge deal, but kind of amusing. If this isn’t shut down by blackout restrictions and doesn’t have an insanely long delay from live TV, this could be amazing. Lots of people have tried to ditch cable and use the internet for most of their TV needs. The main thing lost for this plan has always been Sports. This could take out that block and really allow a new way to do TV. Did I mention it is FREE if you already have a Gold account? You like free don’t you?

How about the games finally?

• Call of Duty: Black Ops: We get a similar trailer to the one that was out before E3, but with some additional scenes that were, well, insanely awesome. You got several different looks in the trailer today. There was a slower, stealthier portion, an insane run and gun, and then a more directed section where you are in a helicopter gunning people down. If you don’t enjoy roasting enemies from a helicopter, you probably aren’t going to keep reading my thoughts on all of this. They also announce that Xbox will continue to get DLC for the new COD game 1st, just like they have with Modern Warfare 2.
• Halo:Reach got a new campaign trailer. To put it simply, this looked awesome. Both you and your Spartan teammates can use the armor abilities like sprint and armor lock that we saw in the Multiplayer Beta a few weeks ago. They didn’t show us anything on whether you select the different loadouts before each level, if they are dictated by the specific level or what. The level we saw had a decided Beach of Normandy feel to it, up until your Spartan got into a spaceship and took off. At first it looked like it was just a cutscene, but then it turned into an EPIC SPACE DOGFIGHT!!! Let’s be serious, most people think multiplayer when they think Halo, but this looked fantastic for the campaign.
• Gears of War 3: The big announcement here was some 4 player co-op action. This will be a big selling point to many, but admittedly I’m not huge on doing campaigns in a co-op mode. The video looked fantastic, and I don’t mean to take away from that, I just personally prefer to focus on the campaign, which usually when I’m in a co-op mode is harder to do w/ buddies. As you would expect, the game looked insanely pretty.
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising: MGS is finally making it’s appearance on the Xbox. It looks absolutely nut. The trailer was flatout gorgeous, as one would expect form a Metal Gear game in this console generation. The trailer mostly showed Raiden being an absolute beast. He’s gone from a whiny sub-character nobody liked to a badass robot ninja. Not only did we get a gorgeous cutscene, but then got some gameplay of Raiden slicing through brick, cars, and people with ease. This looks great.
• Fable III: Fable III looks like, well, it looks like it’s going to be pretty much the same as the 1st 2 Fable games. I played the first one, it was ok, but not my favorite. This is for those of you that like the action-RPG genre.
• Codename:Kingdoms: This looks like it will be a gladiatorial combat game… It comes from Crytek, but the trailer was live action, so who knows.

The last major announcement was a brand new Xbox 360. Where was this 2 months ago when my old one crapped out? For $300 you get a new, smaller Xbox with a 250GB harddrive, built in wi-fi adapter (bout damn time), and an allegedly “whisper quiet fan.” If you are looking for a 360, it’s a good deal, but this late it isn’t going to have a huge impact for most. Microsoft finished by going Oprah and giving everyone who was there a free one. Not a bad idea to try and garner some love after what was a very meh press conference.

Microsoft without a doubt is trying to get in on some of the new gamers that have been brought in by the Nintendo Wii. You can’t blame them with how much cash Nintendo has made with the Wii over the last few years. According to Engadget, the Kinect is going to come out at $150 with games costing the full $60 price tag we are used to. As of right now, I can’t see any reason why I would pick it up. The games look like Wii clones, years later and more expensive. While the hand controlled menu’s look awesome, video chat seems to work well, and ESPN integration all look good, none seem worth buying. Video chat works between Kinect and Windows Live messenger, but between things like Skype and iChat, if you have a webcam, this is still old news. Most of the games have been done on the Wii or even with the Playstation EyeToy. Not a great look from Microsoft, which is disappointing since they had the opening word. Sony is probably licking their chops right now.