Manscaping is what a man does to maintain his appearance, generally referring to certain places that shall remain nameless. Aren't you dying to know our answers? Hit the link below to see McWhertor, Ashcraft and I handle the question with varying degrees of tact, and be sure to check out the whole series for more opinions we'll probably regret having put to video later.

My Video Scrapbook of Precious E3 Memories Part 8: Do You Manscape? [GayGamer.net]

"Do awards translate into higher sales? The answer is yes, but not always. Additionally certain categories have a higher correlation between awards and sales. Since these awards began in 1998, the Best Console title has sold an average of 2.42 million units life-time in the U.S., according to NPD," Schachter explained.

Poor Jet Grind Radio. Had my beloved Dreamcast not taken a fall you would have been right up there as well. Schacter goes on to mention that while this works for Best Console title, it doesn't work across all categories, notable Best In Show, with past winners including the PSP and Gamecube, both of which performed poorly in the face of competition.

If you ask me, it isn't so much the receiving of an award that causes the jump in sales. The E3 Critics awards are an indicator of what games the press and reviewers were most interested in. The games the press get the most interested in are the games the press write about. The more positive coverage a game gets in magazines and online, the more likely people are to buy it. It isn't so much people buying the games because they won the awards...people buy the games because the press love them.

Isn't that a rather self-important view, you ask? If you look back at some of my favorite games over the past couple of years you'll see that there are obvious exceptions to the rule. Going to exclude myself from this based on Iron Man alone.

Do E3 Awards Translate into Big Sales? [GameDaily]

Platform Breakdown By Number Of Wins
Xbox 360: 8 (Down three from 2007)
PlayStation 3: 7 (Down one from 2007)
PC: 7 (Up three from 2007)
Wii: 1 (Same as 2007)
PSP: 2

But wait, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Game Critics folks have also broken down wins by publisher. Electronic Arts took home the most wins, despite taking one less category this year than last year. Sony was in second with three total wins and Bethesda in third. Microsoft rounded up the list, while Nintendo didn't win a single award as a publisher.

5 Wins:
Electronic Arts (-1 from 2007, +2 from 2006)
For 2008, EA won 5 out of 21 nominations — 24%
In 2007, EA won 6 out of 14 nominations — 43%
In 2006, EA won 3 out of 11 nominations — 27%
In 2005, EA won 7 out of 16 nominations — 44%
In 2004, EA won 5 out of 11 nominations — 46%
In 2003, EA won 0 out of 6 nominations — 0%

3 Wins:
Sony (+1 from 2007, +2 from 2006)
For 2008, Sony won 3 out of 11 nominations — 27%
In 2007, Sony won 2 out of 7 nominations — 29%
In 2006, Sony won 1 out of 10 nominations — 10%
In 2005, Sony won 2 out of 8 nominations — 18%
In 2004, Sony won 2 out of 8 nominations — 18%
In 2003, Sony won 3 out of 6 nominations — 50%

2 Wins:
Bethesda (new)

1 Win:
Microsoft (-2 from 2007, -2 from 2006)
For 2008, Microsoft won 1 out of 7 nominations — 14%
For 2007, Microsoft won 3 out of 8 nominations — 38%
In 2006, Microsoft won 3 out of 9 nominations — 33%
In 2005, Microsoft won 0 out of 8 nominations — 0%
In 2004, Microsoft won 4 out of 9 nominations — 44%
In 2003, Microsoft won 2 out of 13 nominations — 15%

Fallout 3 landed the coveted Best of Show award as well as Best Role Playing Game, while LittleBigPlanet landed Best Console Game and Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game. However LBP was passed up for Best Original Game, with Mirror's Edge getting the nod instead.

Hit up the jump for the full list of winners and feel free to look back at our votes and the full finalist list, to see how they compare.

Best of Show
Fallout 3
(Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Original Game
Mirror's Edge
(DICE/Electronic Arts for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 36)

Best Console Game
LittleBigPlanet
(Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3)

Best PC Game
Spore
(Maxis/EA)

Best Handheld Game
Resistance: Retribution
(Bend Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment for PSP)

Best Hardware/Peripheral
Rock Band 2 Ion “Drum Rocker” Set
(ION Audio/MTV Games for Xbox 360)

Best Action Game
Gears of War 2
(Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360)

Best Action/Adventure Game
Dead Space
(EA Redwood Shores/EA for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Role Playing Game
Fallout 3
(Bethesda Softworks for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Racing Game
Pure
(Black Rock/Disney Interactive Studios for PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Sports Game
Madden NFL 09
(Tiburon/EA for All Systems)

Best Fighting Game
Street Fighter IV
(Capcom for Arcade)

Best Strategy Game
Tom Clancy’s EndWar
(Ubisoft Shanghai/Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle
LittleBigPlanet
(Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3)

Best Online Multiplayer
Left 4 Dead
(Valve/EAP for PC, Xbox 360)

Today, I turned in Kotaku's official ballot for who we think the winners should be. I have to say this was one of the harder years to judge. In particular you had games like Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3 and LittleBigPlanet all vying for the same awards and let's not forget Spore, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, LEGO Batman, etc, etc.

Hit up the jump for our official ballot and then chime in to explain how we got it all wrong.

Best of Show
- Fallout 3

Best Original Game
- LittleBigPlanet

Best Console Game
- Fallout 3

Best Handheld Game
- Resistance: Retribution

Best PC Game
- Left 4 Dead

Best Hardware
- Lips Microphone

Best Action Game
- Left4Dead

Best Action/Adventure Game
- Dead Space

Best Role Playing Game
- Fallout 3

Best Fighting Game
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Best Racing Game
- Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Best Sports Game
- Skate It

Best Strategy Game
- Tom Clancy's EndWar

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game
- LittleBigPlanet

Best Online Multiplayer Game
- Left 4 Dead

It's too early to tell if the shrinking E3 has helped bolster id's own id-centric annual show QuakeCon. Usually id Software waits until the Saturday of the show to get official attendance numbers.

But Hollenshead is already sure that QuakeCon is the right way to host a gaming conference.

"I think we struck a balance of being vendor supported and still being in touch with the gamers," he said. "We had over 6,000 hours of volunteer time, that's like the polar opposite of E3,. which is all about business."

In fact id Software only officially showed up at E3 as a single announcement during the Electronic Arts press conference. They were there to tell the world that EA would be publishing their upcoming id Tech 5 game, Rage.

And even that had to be modified to fit in with what E3 and its attendees expect from the show.

"We were told you can't show this stuff because of these five reasons," Hollenshead said. "Last night (during QuakeCon) we had the bigger, better, more hardcore, not suitable for investor conference (announcement) for Rage and Doom."

[Pic]

So of course I took a look at my roommate situation and saw that Michael Fahey and I were going to be bunk mates for the next few days. No more than a minute later I get this hysterical laugh from Owen on instant message. "Adam, good luck trying to sleep BWA HA HA HA" he says. I was dumbfounded. There was no way I could have possibly been prepared for what was in store.

My E3 dreams were shattered when it came time to go to sleep. The great thing about being the Kotaku video intern (at the time) was that I got to capture all of the wonderful Hallmark moments. Video, after the jump

Owen writes:

Fahey warned me he had “a sleep disorder,” well before E3. So when I saw that Crecente paired me with him and Adam, I knew I’d better have a strategy for the one night I was there. That strategy was to get commode-huggin’ drunk and stay out as late as possible, so I would be too tired to care about any snoring. I slept like a log, even though Fahey sounded like someone taking a Husqvarna to a forest of old-growth. Poor Adam had only one drink at the party and was in bed by 11:30. He didn't stand a chance.

While we were surprised to see a lack of X-waggle and to learn that Kid Icarus was a no-show, that Duffy performance clearly came out of nowhere. Hit the jump for the final tally and keep your eyes peeled for the winner — and possible tie-breaker — of our E3 Fantasy Betting Pool contest. Woot!

Microsoft shows off new Xbox 360 user interface
The Redmond giant announced the new, Cover Flow-like dashboard at its press conference, dubbing it the New Xbox Experience. Reaction was mixed, but as an anti-fan of the current, hideous Vegas-strip look and feel, I welcomed it with open arms.

Microsoft announces Avatars, its own version of the Mii
We obviously knew about Avatars weeks in advance of E3, thanks to the tissue-thin security at marketing research company Intellisponse. We even knew what they looked like. It's doubtful that if we hadn't gotten an early preview, we'd have cared about the new feature any more than we do right now.

At least one celebrity calls one of the music games shown off on stage by the wrong name.
Unfortunately for the Viacom folks who gave The Who a huge sum of money to play the Rock Band party at the Orpheum, Pete Townshend confused the game with its main competitor, the Guitar Hero series. An honest mistake!

Don Mattrick will not sport Peter Moore style tattoos
We didn't see any. Did you?

Grand Theft Auto IV spin-off for Nintendo DS and/or PSP announced.
One of the titles Nintendo touted as core focused was Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, a portable side story set in Liberty City. And it was merely announced, with nothing but a logo on display.

Nintendo will fail to announce a storage device for Wii, enraging the hardcore with another jovial, upbeat mass-market presentation including at least one head-scratcher peripheral.
Storage device? Nope. Jovial, upbeat mass-market presentation? Check. Head-scratcher peripheral? Wii MotionPlus might fit the bill, especially if you're a developer who wasted many man hours programming motion detection routines that can now be done with hardware.

One awkward, surprise celebrity walk-on will spawn its own internet meme for the coming age.
It may be a stretch to describe portions of Nintendo's media briefing as meme-spawning, but we're never going to forget the animated GIFs of DJ Ravi Drums wailing away on the air drums with Wii Music.

Finally, this one — Animal Crossing Wii gets stuffed animals with virtual keycodes — was almost correct, as Ubisoft announced that Petz branded stuffed animal with virtual keycodes, unlocking breeds in-game were due to be released. We take no pride in being almost right when it comes to Petz related topics.

The only rule? They have to be playable by the judges at E3.

The winning games haven't quite been selected yet, but the judges (including myself) have selected the finalists. Best of show nominees are Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, LittleBigPlanet, Mirror's Edge and Spore. LittleBigPlanet managed to get the most nominations across the board, with five, while both Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead nabbed four nominations. EA was the publisher with the most nominations, pulling in a whopping 21.

While I mostly agree with the list, there is one stand-out. Early on in the process we were told that Street Fighter IV the arcade machine was eligible for awards. Personally, as much as I love the game, I don't think that's fair. It's not a video game in the true sense of the word. When it does hit consoles that's fine, but I think mixing in arcade games with console and PC titles sets a bad precedent.

Best of Show
- Fallout 3
- Gears of War 2
- LittleBigPlanet
- Mirror’s Edge
- Spore

Best Original Game
- Flower
- Left 4 Dead
- Little Big Planet
- Mirror’s Edge
- Spore

Best Console Game
- Fallout 3
- Gears of War 2
- LittleBigPlanet
- Resistance 2
- Resident Evil 5

Best Handheld Game
- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
- Chrono Trigger DS
- Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
- Resistance: Retribution
- Rhythm Heaven

Best PC Game
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Left 4 Dead
- Spore
- Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II
- Warhammer Online

Best Hardware
- Lips Microphone
- Rock Band 2 Ion “Drum Rocker” Set
- Wii MotionPlus

Best Action Game
- Far Cry 2
- Gears of War 2
- Left 4 Dead
- Mirror’s Edge
- Resistance 2

Best Action/Adventure Game
- Dead Space
- Prince of Persia
- Resident Evil 5
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
- Tomb Raider: Underworld

Best Role Playing Game
- Chrono Trigger DS
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Fable 2
- Fallout 3
- Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

Best Fighting Game
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
- Soul Calibur IV
- Street Fighter IV
- Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Best Racing Game
- Baja: Edge of Control
- Midnight Club: Los Angeles
- MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
- Pure

Best Sports Game
- Madden NFL 09
- NBA Live 09
- Shaun White Snowboarding
- Skate It
- Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09

Best Strategy Game
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
- Empire: Total War
- Halo Wars
- Tom Clancy’s EndWar
- Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game
- Guitar Hero World Tour
- Lego Batman: The Videogame
- LittleBigPlanet
- Rock Band 2
- Wii Sports Resort

Best Online Multiplayer Game
- Gears of War 2
- Left 4 Dead
- LittleBigPlanet
- Resistance 2
- Rock Band 2

During my practically nonexistent downtime, I wandered down to check out the offerings at the E3 installation of Indiecade 2008. Indiecade is, as the name implies, a celebration of a variety of indie games ranging from 'art games' to more mainstream-type titles. We've covered at least two of the games here on Kotaku — Jason Rohrer's Gravitation and The Odd Gentlemen's The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (begun as an MFA thesis at the University of Southern California). I had a chance to check out some of the games, talk to the people behind Indiecade, and watch the goings on — which included a surprising amount of hubbub and talent scouts from several companies lurking around. And there was more than just games: art prints were featured from various games (I even spied a screen from Blueberry Garden), plus videos of ARGs and installation games. My impressions and some pictures after the jump.

The playable games at this year's exhibition spanned an incredibly wide range:

• Bumper Stars, a Facebook app by Large Animal Games, described as "a deliciously addictive cocktail of pinball, pool, and fruit."
• Democracy 2 by Positech Games, a political simulation/strategy game.
• The Graveyard by Tale of Tales, "more like an explorable painting than a game" about an old lady who visits a graveyard.
• Gravitation by Jason Rohrer, about "mania, melancholia, and the creative process."
• ibb and obb by Richard Boeser, a cooperative game for two (and too damn cute).
• Jojo's Fashion Show 2 by Gamelab, a matching game (and one of the more mainstream titles).
• The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, a time-bending puzzle game featuring Victorian landscapes and mincemeat pie. And lots and lots of Winterbottoms.
• levelHead by Julian Oliver, which uses a solid plastic cube as its only interface. On screen, each face of the cube appears to be a room (all connected by doors) and players tilt and move the cube in an attempt to find an exit for the character.

As the list shows, Indiecade is dealing with a lot of different kinds of games — from the art games to the commercial games to all the types in between. I wandered around and had a lot of fun watching people play, especially the games with particularly unique mechanics (like levelHead). While my first visit down to the Indiecade corner of the exhibition hall was met with a reasonably subdued scene, it grew progressively more crowded through the day as more and more people gathered to take a look at the games.

One of the nice points about Indiecade is that you have a reasonably high likelihood of getting to chat with the game developers as you look at and play their games. I took the opportunity to talk at some length with Matt Korda (lead designer, lead artist and programmer) and Paul Bellezza (producer) about their game, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. Matt and Paul are both recent graduates of USC's Interactive Media MFA program, and P.B. Winterbottom started as a thesis project ('we wanted to combine Buster Keaton with Back to the Future'), but is now being shopped around to publishers. Having written about the postmortem of the game, I was curious to try my hand at it — I was initially struck by the resemblance to Braid, since it too features a sort of time mechanic presented as filming the action going on. As I worked further through the demo, though, I was pleased to discover the flexibility given to the player in game. In many respects, there is no one 'right' answer to the game; I got to chat about this (as well as game design, academia, the program at USC and a whole host of other issues) with Matt and Paul. Indiecade provides a really nice venue for this sort of interaction, one thing I think is really a plus about the whole event. It's nice to hear about a game from the horse's mouth, and not just via the written word.

I also took some time to chat with Sam Roberts, the Indiecade Festival Director (and former director of the Slamdance festival). We chatted about Indiecade, independent development, and where we may be in five or ten years. Indiecade is a chance to showcase a variety of independent games that are, in many respects, the 'best of the best' — interesting and creative mechanics, fresh designs, and faces different from the usual AAA suspects. The designers and companies aren't going to change the industry overnight, but definitely have a lot to add to the current and future scenes (even if they are flying under the radar in comparison to the 'mainstream'). These aren't just 'pie in the sky' concepts — the playable versions presented were solid and polished pieces of game design. Of course, not all the examples are gunning for mainstream publication (games such as Gravitation, for example), but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Winterbottom and others popping up on a console near you in the future. Talent scouts for major companies weren't lurking around simply for the hell of it.

One of the nicest points about Indiecade is the fact that it's impossible to pigeonhole the games into one category (beyond 'indie,' which is in and of itself a rather nebulous label): when I turned from Winterbottom, I was face to face with the casual and commercial Jojo's Fashion Show 2, which was right around the corner from the more experimental levelHead. A wide variety of mechanics, design styles, and purposes were on display, and it made for a really interesting experience. I didn't even play most of the games, preferring to stand back and watch the designers give their talks and walk interested parties through playable portions. One of my particular favorites was the charming two-player game ibb and obb:

A painfully cute game, the real charm is in the gameplay, which requires two players to cooperate through candy-colored levels to finish. It's cute, clever, and creative — that creativity was one of the hallmarks of Indiecade, no matter what sort of form it took. Several of the games offered interesting intermediaries between the oftentimes 'vapid' casual market and more 'hardcore' titles: pick up and play titles that offer more than, say, Bejeweled. For someone like me — who games in cycles, and frequently just doesn't have the time to settle in with hours and hours of playtime — it's nice to see more options popping up that don't involve match 3 or hidden object games.

If you have the chance to check out Indiecade offerings at an expo or show, definitely do so — it's a nice opportunity to check out what's going on in the indie scene and chat with designers about their games. There are going to be installations at the Penny Arcade Expo and E For All, among others, and it's definitely worth taking some time to see what's going on.

Indiecade photos courtesy of Adam Robezzoli.

Call it nerd rage. Like loyalists of a once-partisan politician who tacks toward the center later in an election cycle, old-school gamers are coming to terms with the ramifications of their favorite’s newfound popularity. Though they have long craved mainstream respectability for video games, players sometimes resent the concessions their champion must make to attract mainstream adherents.

I think we all get why the industry is doing this; I think we all understand that we're talking about publicly traded corporations, who must show growth and not just profitability; I think we can see how it ties into the survival of the consoles and publishers we patronize, and how it affects their ability to give us what we really want. And I think we can all agree we wouldn't be caught dead playing candy-coated shit like Wii Music. In lawyer's parlance, we can stipulate to all of that.

But there's one description of "me" to which I won't:

"In the popular imagination, a gamer is a caffeine-fueled 26-year-old with a paunch, the local pizza place on speed dial and a hard drive full of Internet pornography."

They only got me on three of those. Plus my hard drive isn't full (duh) so really, two out of six.

As Game Studios Court the Mainstream, Old Customers Feel Marooned [The New York Times, Thanks reader Douginator]

In our last video featuring Sega of America's Simon Jeffery, the president of the company explains why we haven't seen any System 16 or System 24 games on Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network. He also talks about his reluctance to put some of those games on Live due to Microsoft's requirement to update a game's graphics before porting.

Actually, to be fair it's more like they passed the buck... preemptively:

Several of you asked about Tecmo’s other titles that have been announced in Japan which were not on display at the show. Fatal Frame 4 (Wii) will be published by Nintendo, so please contact your Nintendo PR contact for further information. Rygar: The Battle of Argus (Wii) is in development and we are planning to provide more information this fall.

I contacted Nintendo for comment and take their stony silence as complete confusion. We'll update you as soon as they update us.

God Hand 2? Viewtiful Joe 3? Not coming, at least not from the Platinum Games, formerly Clover, guys. But that doesn't mean we wont' be seeing echoes of those games in their fancy, new Sega published games.

I think we got more than 12 months’ work done, and others went on an extended vacation. Hopefully they got some good vacation photos, because they sure weren't showing up at work... Of course I'm going to be biased, but so far what I've heard is that Sony and Nintendo have disappointed. And Microsoft has been leading, innovating and driving a very comprehensive global programme... We're building momentum and we're on a scale that no other consumer electronics company or entertainment company has been able to achieve in nine years. It's been a very good show and I'm very pleased with what we've been able to accomplish. I think there was a lot of good work, a lot of innovation and a lot of news from us.

Oh, Don.

Mattrick: Rivals have been slacking off [MCVUK]

See Brian try to talk the head of Sega of America into launching Dreamcast 2 to take on the Wii.
Dreamcast 2? Seaman 2? Shenmue 3? Hear Simon Jeffery crush all of your Sega wet dreams.

We explained it in detail, why Aliens didn't make E3. But it's so much more soothing hearing the news come in the Anglified voice of SEGA of America's head honcho Simon Jeffery.

Still The Sims, now with a shiny 3 after it. If you're interested in all things Simlish then you probably want to take a gander at the offical E3 Sims 3 trailer, sent over to our tower fresh this morning. What does this have, Sim faithful, that would make me want to drop whatever other Sims game I happen to be currently playing?

Rumor has it that Molyneux is currently working on Denis Dyack II, which is said to feature more realistic gameplay, and possibly a dog.

Hold on a moment...I just actually read the full article instead of skimming it, and it turns out that Molyneux simply feels sorry for the flack that Denis Dyack is catching over Too Human.

"I feel sorry for Denis Dyack because you know, I think a few things were said wrong, there was that really unfortunate showing at E3 a few years ago. Everyone got on the bandwagon of saying things about Too Human. Now I've played it and, you know, it's a good game. It doesn't deserve a lot of that harsh criticism.

It all makes sense now! Molyneux of course caught a lot of flack himself when he released Fable on the original Xbox, a game that decidedly did not live up to his creative vision. You can see where I could get confused.

I kind of apologised at the end of Fable 1 about actually saying things that didn't end up in the game. I've tried to be really really careful about what I show and I think everything I've talked about in Fable 2 you can now play in there, so that was really important. But what I realise over time is that talking about a game before it's released is a dangerous game.

Sort of like writing out a news post before fully reading and understanding the source article, which I would never, ever do.

Peter Molyneux: 'I feel sorry for Denis Dyack' [Videogamer.Com]

It's really too bad our illegal street racing skills weren't up to the challenge. Sprinting through Sunset Boulevard in a Mazda RX8, then through the Hollywood hills in a late '60s Ford Mustang Boss 302 showed that, while we were thrown a couple of "REP" points here and there, we have a long way to go before actually having a respectable racing reputation.

Fortunately, we looked pretty good, even when finishing fourth.

That's largely due to the game's deep car customization system, not our (or our in-game driver's) physical beauty. In Midnight Club: Los Angeles' garages, you can spend your hard-earned dollars on new performance enhancements for your ride. Using real world name brand aftermarket parts, you can upgrade your acceleration, handling and speed via the purchase of new electronics, air intakes, nitrous tanks and more.

You'll also be able to tap into your vanity's performance, decking out your car with new paintjobs, new headlights, new doors, even new interior components. Tired of that dull stock steering wheel? Throw a MOMO on it! Those interior changes can be gawked at via the cockpit view camera choice.

I turned a rather attractive stock Aston-Martin V8 Vantage Roadster into a hideous purple and orange glowing beast, complete with vertical doors and every garish accoutrement I had access to. (I had access to everything, via unlimited God-mode funds.)

There's also a rather substantial "vinyl editor", one that let's players create a look unlike any other. It looks to be on par with custom exterior editors found in titles like Forza Motorsport 2, with default stickers and customizable primitives at your editorial disposal.

In the Midnight Club: Los Angeles' garage, you'll also be able to choose your driver's "special moves." These special moves, as described by Rockstar themselves, are as follows.

* Zone allows you to slow down time in order to take sharp turns or weave in-and-out of traffic like a champ!
* Agro will give your car added strength and the ability to damage opponents faster, or sometimes knock them completely out of the race.
* Roar sends a shockwave that clears your path by pushing cars off to the side of the road.
* EMP is an electromagnetic pulse that shuts down the engines of the cars around you, bringing them to a complete stop.

We tried out the EMP, the latest addition to the line-up of super moves. Fortunately, the electronics shorting blast radius doesn't affect your ride, so, after creeping up on a cluster of opponents, we fired it off. After seeing the tail end of opponent's rides for a good portion of our races, we took great satisfaction in watching them spin out — perhaps a bit too much, as we went hood first into a building right after.

It might've been the sightseeing that distracted us, actually. Midnight Club: LA's edited down versions of Hollywood, Santa Monica and downtown LA look almost exactly like the real thing, minus the rage-inducing traffic the city is known for.

There are dozens of recognizable landmarks, with stylized versions of the Sunset Strip, Beverly Hills and the Santa Monica Pier chockablock with detail, including billboards of licensed products like iPods and T-Mobile Sidekicks, as well as landmarks like The Comedy Store and even the hotel we were in during our demo.

The city looks so startlingly realistic that I tried to find my way to my neighborhood — not quite the stuff of street racing — but was unsuccessful. While the feel of LA is certainly intact, the roads have been carefully redesigned for a more fantastic driving experience.

Oh yeah. The driving. We took part in a quartet of races, some initiated by simply finding competition on the streets and flashing our headlights. We then sprinted off to a the starting line, having the option to actually race to the starting line. This pre-race race will net you more REP points, used to gain access to higher level races, but is totally optional. The sprint to the starting line can be skipped if you so desire, but we found the spontaneous thrill of beating our competition to the meeting point was worth it not just for the extra points. At the very least, it's a nice warm up.

We tooled all around town through our four races. Our first formal race, Sand and Surf, took us from the beaches to the freeway. Mulholland and Beverly saw us driving through the winding hills of Hollywood before heading down to the Valley. Macarthur Cut took us from downtown to the LA River, a misnomer of a racing venue that might be familiar to fans of Terminator 2's more epic chase scenes.

Each felt unique and frenzied. Midnight Club: LA's dynamic camera, which switches to an over-the-shoulder style view when hopped up on nitrous or coming off a slipstream drafting high, combined with tire-spinning peel outs makes for a white-knuckled rush. It's somewhat difficult to see what you're actually racing toward, it's so fast. Our decked out cars may have had something to do with the feeling of untamed car control, and we'll blame our many crashes and last place finishes on that.

What we didn't get to tackle were Midnight Club: LA's motorcycles or the LAPD, both back in the newest iteration. We'll just have to wait until the game is released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year to do that. The game hits October 7th in North America and October 10th in Europe.

The first big announcement of the press conference had to be exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PC for Bethesda's Fallout 3. As a gamer with all three of the title's launch platforms in my home, that was exactly the sort of news that sealed the deal for me, and certainly a bit of a downer for the PlayStation 3 crowd, but that's not what this press conference was all about, was it?

They followed up the Fallout 3 scoop with a gaggle of sequel release dates. Resident Evil 5 in February of next year, with Fable II coming in October and Gears of War 2 slated for a November release. This was Microsoft's way of assuring 360 owners that they'd have plenty of games to look forward to over the holiday season and beyond.

Then came the first real bomb - the reinvention of Xbox Live. Support for custom avatars caught many a gamers' eye, though of course plenty of folks out there saw the new feature as an aping of Nintendo. Me? The move was definitely inspired by Nintendo, but custom avatars seem a natural addition to a console so heavily invested in community.

Along with the newly revamped Xbox Live experience came Live Party, a way for online friends to basically for a gaming group, staying together from game to game, sharing pictures, music, and even videos while never losing touch with one another.

They'll even be able to watch Netflix movies together, with MS announcing a partnership between the two companies that will allow 360 owners to download movies and watch them directly from their console, much like PC owners can do right now.

Further banking on the system's online capabilities, Microsoft also announced Xbox PrimeTime, a game show channel for the Xbox 360 where players around the world could participate in titles like Uno Rush and 1 Vs. 100, based on the hit television show.

Other revelations included news on Guitar Hero DLC from Van Halen and Metallica, a sequel to the classic Galaga coming to Xbox Live Arcade, and some pretty new controller colors.

Just when we though the show was over for Microsoft, ending with Square Enix's Yoichi Wada showing off Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean, and The Last Remnant, after which Sony's Don Mattrick came back on stage to sum things up. Some interesting games were shown, and the Xbox Live updates were intriguing, but that was it? Seemed a bit lackluster to me.

Then Yoichi Wada came back on stage and did this. Final Fantasy XIII, the game that launched a million PlayStation 3 systems, was no longer a PS3 exclusive. Up in the press room, Leigh and I actually whooped, scaring those nearby. Sony fanboys were outraged. Every day that I wake up and there isn't a parody of the song American Pie (Bye, bye FF X-I-I-I) in my inbox I am slightly crushed.

That last announcement carries a lot of importance for Microsoft. That a company as well respected as Square Enix deem them worthy of receiving the first multi-platform Final Fantasy title ever (XI still doesn't count) is a tremendous nod to Microsoft's success with the system as well as the perceived potential of the 360 with publishers across the industry.

All in all I'd say that Microsoft took several steps in the right direction this E3. They've taken steps towards further defining their vision of an online gaming community, revealed some extremely lucrative deals both game and movie-wise, and they've shown the sort of extra value that the Xbox 360 has to offer in a world where exclusives are becoming a very rare animal indeed.

Microsoft

- Alan Wake is shown. We still have no idea what’s going on, but are also still glad they’ve stuck with the name “Alan”.
- Halo Wars is played on-stage, in real-time, putting to rest any fears that the RTS won’t handle too well on a console.
- Ex-Bungie, now-Microsoft man Frankie O’Connor takes to the stage to show off Bungie’s new Halo title. It’s part Call of Duty 4, part Ghost Recon, all grainy helmet cam footage and blood splatters. It looks amazing.
- Final Fantasy XIII is announced for the 360! Then, in an extension of the same money-making logic, Konami begrudgingly announce that Metal Gear Solid 4 is also coming to the 360. And the PC.

Nintendo

- There’s no need for a price-cut from the market leaders, so instead they announce…new colours. From October, the Wii will be available in black, red, lime green and puce.
- The lights dim, the music rolls…it’s a montage. Of new, upcoming, good-looking Wii titles. There’s F-Zero Wii, Pikmin 3, Starfox Wii, Return To Luigi’s Mansion, 4 Swords Wii/DS, Kid Icarus: Rogue Angel Squadron. There’s Animal Crossing. There’s a glimpse of a new IP: a cute, ageing artist who must fight his way through middle age, and the creative slump that’s been brought on by it. At the end? A familiar score, a flash of triforce, a sword being pulled from a stone pedestal. The crowd goes wild.
- A renewed commitment to the Virtual Console is announced, starting with the complete Mother trilogy, which will be released throughout September.

Sony

- Following the pleasant, if not surprising unveiling of the PS3’s video service, Jack Tretton announces casually that – following the introduction of the 2.43 firmware update in October – all PlayStation 3 models will be fully backwards-compatible, thanks to a nifty piece of software emulation.
- A Remote Play initiative is kicked off, whereby developers are encouraged to ensure that either their PS3 games are somehow playable via remote play, or will at least contain PSP-friendly mini-games or bonus content.
- God Of War III is debuted. And not with some bullshit pre-rendered trailer. It’s actually debuted.
- Team Ico’s new game is shown off. It’s got a muted colour palette, involves a silent protagonist, and looks absolutely wonderful.
- Square Enix finally get their act together and announce a Final Fantasy VII remake for the PS3. The good news? It’s a Final Fantasy VII remake. The bad news? It’ll be episodic, downloaded from the PSN, will cost $20 per episode (there’ll be 117 episodes) and the first won’t be ready until 2012.

Capcom

- Capcom wheel out a surprise guest during their E3 presser. It’s Ready At Dawn’s Ru Weerasuriya, who’s there to announce that, yes, they’re no longer working on the PSP. They’re now working with Capcom on a PS3 exclusive. Okami 2.

Sega

- Sega’s key E3 announcement is that, yes, the werewolf segments of Sonic Unleashed are a PR prank, and the entire game will consist of the daylight, Sonic, go-really-fast bits. Oh Sega. You had us going there for a minute!

Activision

- Two new Call of Duty games are announced. The first, Call of Duty 6, is Infinity Ward’s next CoD title. Set in the far reaches of distant space, it tells the tale of a lone soldier’s struggle against a hostile alien invader bent on humanity’s ultimate destruction. People still get excited. The second game is a CoD4 spin-off for the PSP called Call of Duty: Albion Prevails, which tells the tale of a young Price and his covert struggles against those cheeky Argentineans and Irish. Includes bonus moustache-trimming minigame.

EA

- Mass Effect 2 is shown. It does not feature slyly-cut “sex scenes”. It features full-blown man-on-alien penetration and alien-on-alien nazi sex dungeons.
- Pandemic reveal their Batman sandbox title, which surprises everyone by looking not only faithful to the source, but also good.

GameSpot Party [Comedy.com]

As we do every year, we’re beginning the process of surveying exhibitors and attendees to determine potential changes to the Summit. Once this is completed and shared with the ESA’s Board of Directors, we will make an announcement about the specifics of the 2009 E3 Media & Business Summit, which will occur.

Maybe they'll move it back to Santa Monica again to keep everyone on their toes. Or how about Pasadena? Bring it to Orange County!

E3 to return in '09 [GameSpot via Go Nintendo]

If there is any perception that Nintendo is ignoring the core gamers, it's a misunderstanding and we really want to get rid of that misunderstanding by any means. We are sorry about [the E3] media briefings, specifically for those who were expecting to see Nintendo show something about 'Super Mario' or 'Legend of Zelda.'

"Sorry" is a strong, and surprisingly powerful word to pull out. Probably won't do anything to sooth the strained neck veins of the outraged faithful, but it's a nice gesture regardless.

A Wii Bit Short On Supplies [Forbes]

That's why it's helpful that something like Fable II can be broken down into digestible, feature-focusing chunks. The game's dog, for example, with its ability to help out in battle, its nose for hidden treasure, we know is going to be A Big Deal. We won't be surprised if Man's Best Friend plays a more important role than Molyneux led us to believe in our sit down preview of his Xbox 360 game.

We just know he's going to emotionally manipulate us with that lovable digital mutt.

We were about two hours into Fable II's storyline, Molyneux says, when we got our first hands-on experience with combat and dog-play. Combat has been a big focus in the Fable sequel, and while it may not have Ninja Gaiden caliber aspirations (or animations), it works. It's fun, especially when the dog comes to your aid, gnawing on the limb of some recently dispatched foe.

The hero in Fable II had access to limited combat options at this point. He was just getting his hands on some rifles and a little bit of magic. Sadly, we didn't get to take on that lovely looking Treant beast, just some rank and file pirates, but left the combat experience feeling more than satisfied.

If there's one thing that Fable II looks to achieve, it's painless action RPG combat. It may not have the cinematic flair of Nintendo's 3D Legend of Zelda games, but Lionhead Studios title has so much more depth, we can forgive a few rough edges.

And being the graphics snob I am, those rough edges come across in some occasionally homely character models. The hero's wife in Fable II may be a busty beauty, but the game may get some flack for its sometimes ho-hum visuals.

That will most likely be forgiven with the impressive amount of depth the game appears to have. The ability to upgrade your career skills via mini-game diversions looks better than grinding and cold, hard stats arrangement.

When we got into town, we met Fable II's bard, the singer-songwriter who will belt out tales of your heroism. He'll also sing songs of your cowardice, adding comic relief and occasional annoyance to your journey through the game.

Molyneux showed off some of the game's Expressions, the silly jigs and smooth moves that let you woo ladies and forge new friendships, prior to our hands-on. You'll pick them from a radial menu when you want to take a wife or receive a gift. They were fairly limited in our demo of the game, but look to provide some welcome options for adding variety to the game world. You'll see non-playable characters throughout town that you can interact with using Expressions, each with icons over their heads indicating their disposition. Wow them with your moves and you'll reap the rewards.

It's difficult to tell if Fable II, with its pub games, combat system, intelligent canine partner and career skills, will be more than the sum of its parts. We'll know when the game ships this October, as we start focusing less on the features and more on the game itself.

When it comes to asking the industry's bigwigs the big questions, we here at Kotaku aren't afraid to get our hands dirty. So, while we were at E3, we asked some of the top executives from each of the major companies questions on their own material. I mean think about it, when do you get to quiz your teachers? This was an opportunity we weren't going to miss. We present the Kotaku Executive Pop Quiz!

Ray, here to save the world from an evil something or other that's covering his kingdom with a black goo, has a pair of familiars that will help him in his fight against, you know, evil. One, a portly bat-winged devil sprays a cleansing orange slime and a sticky green goo. The other, an angelic wisp, sprays water and ice that puts out fires and lays down ice tracks.

The combination of all these things is what gives SPRay its uniqueness.

As you can probably suspect, SPRay takes advantage of the Wii's remote for directing Ray's flow of slop. He'll need to lay down the sticky green stuff to stick to walls (or have other objects stick to walls), stuff that's in a more limited supply. As Ray and his liquidy partners level up, the player will have access to more abilities, giving it a Zelda-like adventure feel.

Like that series' star, Link, Ray also has a sword. He'll use it in concert with the liquid attacks to take out foes, something that should add variety to battling hordes of enemies.

The game looks to have epic boss battles that take advantage of your progressive abilities, something that will surely further comparisons between SPRay and The Legend of Zelda. While the visual design on some of these creatures may not hold up as well to what Nintendo's team has been capable of, we were surprised at how good some of them looked in motion.

The game is due out by the holidays. We look forward to getting some additional time with it... whenever that may be.

But what about what we didn't do? There are a handful of key titles that we thought we could expect for this year's holiday season, so why weren't they showing alongside their seasonal bretheren? We rounded up for you a complete list of this year's no-shows and the hype that preceded them, and then tried to get to the bottom of their conspicuous absence.

Hit the jump for the full report.

The Game: Alan Wake

The Hype: Max Payne developer Remedy announced the "action thriller" way back in 2005, promising to unveil it at E3 — but the game's skipped every event since then, while the developers denied cancellation rumors.
The Facts: A recent story referring to a Windows-branded contest that suggested the game would be shown at this year's Tokyo Game Show turned out to be old news from last year - Remedy posted on its Alan Wake forums that the team's just gotten back from a bit of holidaying, and that they "haven't had time to chat with Microsoft on upcoming shows/showings yet." We contacted Microsoft, and got a "no comment."

The Game: Beyond Good & Evil 2

The Hype: After the original Xbox title first earned critical acclaim in 2003 (making it the ideal title for the return of Kotaku's Game Club), Ubisoft at last announced a sequel for Xbox 360 and PS3 at its Ubidays 08 late in May with a single trailer. No release date was given, and the only other thing we've heard from boss Yves Guillemot is that the sequel will be "more accessible" (read: easier) than its predecessor.
The Facts: Ubisoft has not returned requests for comment, but since the lid was only peeled off the first trailer late in May, it's probable that E3 came too soon to expect the developer to put together a serviceable E3 build.

The Game: Tekken 6

The Hype: Back in 2006, some less-than-impressive E3 screens surfaced for the sixth Tekken title, and in early 2007, unconfirmed rumors suggested the title would launch on Xbox 360 after a period of PS3 exclusivity. When? All we heard is "after Soulcalibur IV" — that's this month, and with no show at E3, that seems pretty unlikely.
The Facts: It's been out on Namco's Japanese arcades, the ones modeled on PS3 hardware, since November 2007, and that's the only place it's been seen since then. We've got no comment from Namco as of press time.

The Game: APB (All Points Bulletin)

The Hype: Dave Jones of Realtime Worlds, the team behind Crackdown, first unveiled APB at GDC 08 in February, wowing audiences with the Counter-Strike-inspired MMO that featured character customization with so many choices that Jones demoed a battle featuring modded FFVII characters. It must have inspired investors, because only a month later Realtime Worlds scored an eye-popping $50 million in venture capital to support the game's development.
The Facts: After the developer bought full rights to the game back from Korean company Webzen, rumors abounded that the developer was angling to sell the game to Rockstar, to create a GTA IV-branded MMO. No such deal surfaced, and early in June the developer said they were in alpha, heading for a full public beta.

Realtime Worlds president Tony Harman told Kotaku that the investment, plus the changing of hands, is the reason behind the no-show at E3: "This year we would have had an exciting presence with APB at E3 if we had continued with Webzen as our publisher," Harman said. "But, given that we re-acquired the rights to APB just this spring and closed a very large fundraising round ($50,000,000) to secure APB’s future, the timing just wasn’t right to attend E3."

"RTW is very excited with APB's progress and we have used our fundraising as a means to invest even more heavily in the APB development team. RTW hopes to release more information later this year with regards to gameplay details and beta plans."

The Game: Brütal Legend

The Hype: The "heavy metal roadshow" epic, starring Jack Black and in development by Tim Schafer-fronted Double Fine, was first announced in September 2007 to much anticipation. We've since seen some effervescent concept art and even a trailer, enough to provoke anticipatory handwringing over the next opus from the well-reputed Psychonauts genius.
The Facts: Alas, it looks like the Activision-Vivendi merger tangled E3 plans for Brütal Legend — Vivendi was the game's original publisher, and the newly-combined company largely snubbed E3 amid its withdrawal from the ESA, though it did hold a press conference there. Just ahead of the event, Schafer confirmed that he hopes to show the game "soon after" E3, and told MTV Multiplayer that "As soon as the dust settles from this whole [Activision Blizzard] merger thing we should be able to talk about the game a lot more.” On Double Fine's official blog, though, Schafer humorously told readers that he skipped E3 because he was much too fat to get through the door, but hopes the South Beach Diet will help.

The Game: Indiana Jones

The Hype: The game was announced in 2005 and first unveiled at E3 2006, appearing to be slated for a 2007 release — when 2007 came and went, we figured that LucasArts would time the game's launch with the release of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull flick. Nope.
The Facts: LucasArts has had its share of troubles lately; back in June, it sacked anywhere from 75 to 100 employees. Though the publisher stated it was still committed to internal development, it joined Activision, Vivendi, id and others in ditching the ESA, and while it still presented at E3, LucasArts told us in late June not to expect any new announcements or titles at the show because of "too much noise" around the event. The publisher has not yet returned requests for comment, but the facts seem to point to a resource-limited LucasArts preferring to focus on Star Wars right now.

The Game: Team ICO's Mystery Project

The Hype: The team behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus is working on something, possibly even two somethings, with a Sony exec saying he was "pretty sure" it was an ICO sequel while another rep said it seemed "close to Shadow of the Colossus" in atmosphere. Since then, all we've seen is an exciting screenshot of a chain disappearing into a hole of some kind.
The Facts: Sony says there's nothing new to announce — if there are any details to be known about when we'll see the Team ICO game, they aren't telling us.

The Game: Duke Nukem Forever

The Hype: The "Forever" in the title must refer to how long it's been since we first heard about this game. Actually, it's been more than a decade — that's right, it's said to have entered development in 1997, a whole 'nother console generation ago. Since then, we've seen the occasional stray screen and twittering rumor to remind us that our favorite piece of vaporware does exist. But then, when a trailer surfaced at last, a 2008 release date was confirmed (and then promptly un-confirmed), and Shacknews actually got to take a demo for a spin, we wondered — could this E3 finally be the one?
The Facts: 3D Realms' Scott Miller said at the end of June that the game, although "coming along" (of course), would not be at E3. Why? Because E3 has become so unimportant that Miller just forgot it existed. "It's just that we view E3 as irrelevant nowadays. In fact, I wasn't even aware it was coming up," he said.

The Game: Aliens: Colonial Marines

The Hype: A new FPS based on the Aliens IP? Count us in. Sega first revealed official details of the Gearbox-developed title in February 2008, teasing with a quick trailer at its gamers' day in May. The release date is supposed to be "late 2008," the same timeline as other games shown at E3. So why did Aliens: Colonial Marines skip the party?
The Facts: Sega of America president Simon Jeffery told our own Crecente that Aliens was the game he was most looking forward to among the publisher's entire lineup. "I think Aliens is going to be kickass," he said. Coming out this year, then? "Well, fiscal year," said Jeffery. "This E3 we're really focusing on stuff that's coming out by the holidays, as much as possible," he added.

The Game: Bungie's Next Project

The Hype: Rumors abounded about what Bungie's next project would be — a Halo sans Master Chief? A 2D platformer featuring a plunger-wielding hero? Whatever it was, when a cryptic splash page appeared on Bungie.net at the start of E3 week, it seemed we were just about to find out.
The Facts: What's E3 without a little drama? When no Bungie announcement came, Bungie president Harold Ryan was quick to reveal the reason why via a simple letter posted on the front page of the developer's website — Bungie had been planning to announce its next game, but said it was as disappointed as the fans when its "plans were just changed by our publisher." When Microsoft's Don Mattrick let slip during E3 that Bungie's next project was indeed a Halo game, the publisher soon followed up with an explanation for why they held off on a big reveal: Microsoft thought it had its competition well enough beat with its E3 presser, and decided to save some of its "embarrassment of riches" for a later event that would "do this game more justice."

While we didn't actually get to lovingly touch the mouse and keyboard used to control our Dragon Age: Origins preview, we still got to see plenty of what the BioWare developed role-playing game will have to offer. If you'd like the alternate universe experience of what we saw in the bowels of the Sheraton Hotel at E3, edited down to just three short minutes, watch this down and dirty Dragon Age gameplay clip. You'll feel like you were there — minus the swag and European journalist aroma.

You'll move around the map with the left analog stick, zooming in and out with the right stick. Unit selection is done with the A button — hold A to select groups via a circle — but you can select all units on screen or every unit in your army with the right or left bumpers, respectively.

Your units will fire on enemy units with X, with an alternate firing mode tied to the Y button.

Unit special abilities and building options can be chosen from a pop up radial menu, giving you quick access to things like air strikes or expansion building choices. The control experience is relatively easy to wrap one's head around, thanks to a clean, quickly loading interface.

Building management is similarly straightforward stuff. We started out with a pre-built base, one with a series of "slots" that additions like barracks and vehicle factories can be built upon. You'll also have access to defense towers, but Halo Wars won't devolve into a turret defense mishmash. Base support feels like less of a focus than team-to-team field combat.

On combat, you'll have more than just Warthogs, Scorpions and Vultures to inflict damage on the UNSC side, a Spirit of Fire colony ship orbited overhead, allowing for called-in airstrikes via MAC cannons. Things get hairy? Call in some giant laser fire.

Halo Wars has some impressive visual pop to it, more colorful than when we last saw it. The game's visual effects, in motion, look spectacular. It may not have the immediate visual sex appeal of something like Halo 3, with it's micro-sized units and overhead perspective, but it looks good.

Keep your eye on Halo Wars, even if you're not a fan of the franchise or traditionally an RTS fan. It looks and feels like a console strategy game should. When we get our hands on the Covenant next time, we'll have a better understanding of how well it stacks up.

Jack Tretton took the stage at Sony's E3 2008 press conference and proclaimed it "the year of the PS3." Reflecting on the oft-touted ten-year lifespan of the PS2, the underlying message seemed to be similar to what we heard from Sony in the past: Just wait, a little bit more.

Sony dropped few big bombs during its press conference, which lasted an hour and a half, but did have plenty of details to reveal: just in case you missed something, we've got complete Cliff's Notes from Sony's presser for you after the jump.

Fitting the theme of a gradual but ever-progressing transition for the PlayStation 3, Sony announced the first Greatest Hits collection for the console, older titles that will now sell for $30 in North America. The first of these will be Resistance: Fall of Man, Motorstorm, Warhawk, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night and Need For Speed: Carbon.

The company also provided a launch window for LittleBigPlanet — previously pegged for September, the company now plans to release it in October.

Sony also spent time on the PS2, which Tretton said is still alive and kicking. "In 2008, we're introducing more than 130 titles to PlayStation 2," he said. A new PS2 bundle, called the "Family Value Pack," is hitting North America in the fall, coming with LEGO Batman and Justice League: New Frontiers on DVD for $149.

As concerns the PlayStation Network, Tretton mentioned the company's effort to ease user migration from PS2, part of which is giving all PlayStation users a single sign-in that can migrate from PSP to PS3 and PC. The other piece of big PSN news was the announcement of Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty, which is a shorter-length downloadable that Europeans will have the option of purchasing on disc.

Tretton touched on Sony's long-awaited virtual world, Home, with little new information to report. "Your patience [for Home] will be more than rewarded," said Tretton said at E3 — meaning there's still no launch date in sight. However, the demo that was shown during Sony's press event looked, according to our own Crecente and McWhertor, much better than Home had previously looked.

As a counterweight to Microsoft's announcement of a partnership with Netflix, Sony revealed that it, too, would be receiving downloadable movies through studio partnerships, including Warner, 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate, Disney, MGM and others. The cost is $15 to purchase, $6 to rent in HD, and $4 to rent in standard definition. The AVC-format videos downloaded to PS3 can also be transferred to the PSP via a USB cable, and the service was set to go live on the same day the announcement was made, July 15th.

A new "Life With Playstation" channel was announced, set to launch in North America at the end of the month, said to bring the news, weather and more to your PlayStation 3.

Finally, the PS3 did get a price drop — of sorts. Tretton announced a 80 GB PS3 "Core Pack" that'll go for $400 — "the same functionality of the 40 GB... with twice the storage," he said.

"This new 80 GB PS3 is perfectly suited for HD games, music, movies and more."

On to PSP, a new bundle was announced, the $199 Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters pack, which comes with the game, National Treasure 2 on UMD, a 1GB memory stick and a voucher forEchochromeon PSP.

The PSP is also getting several new titles: Sony showed Resistance: Retribution, in development by Sony's Bend Studio, along with LocoRoco 2, Patapon 2, NBA 09: Inside, Super Stardust Portable, Buzz! Master Quiz, and Midnight Club: Los Angeles Remix.

The presser closed with the unveiling of MAG, the so-called "Massive Action Game" that may or may not be a SOCOM IP, promising battles for up to 256 players online at once.

The game will be set on a terraformed Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction game. Now the Earth Defense Force folks are in control and have turned bad. Players will take on the roll of a man caught up in the struggle against the EDF. The game will play out in third-person perspective and the entire world will be destructible.

You can, I was told, bring down an entire three-story building piece by piece. The multi-platform game's open world will also allow you to steal vehicles, swipe weapons even recruit other people to join your band of guerrillas.

While I didn't have a chance to play around with the single player campaign, Volition did give me time, lots and lots of time, to play matches of multiplayer.

Chief among the things that Guerrilla adds to the Red Faction franchise is the fully destructible environment. This time around players get both weapons and special power backpacks as they shoot it out with each other. These packs give players different abilities they can use as they rampage through the stark Martian landscape. Some packs let you thruster hop around the map, other's give you a temporary shield or the ability to charge things and inflict massive amounts of melee damage. That last one, a Rhino Pack, was by far my favorite one to use, allowing me to charge right through a building's wall and take down people camped out inside... with a sledgehammer. That's right, you can run around smashing people with a two-handed sledgehammer. Great fun!

The game will feature five to six modes total including anarchy, team anarchy, capture the flag, bagman and siege. In that last mode, one team tries to defend a structure while the other team tries to dismantle it. In all of the modes teams can repair damaged buildings with a rifle that shoots out what appears to be a cross between flames and plasma.

From what I played through, it looks like the physics are pretty dead on. For instance, you can take out a few stabilizing beams on a very tall building and then watch the whole thing slowly buckle and eventually cave in on itself. Volition told me that the stress system in the game calculates by the second where the stress in a building is and how it should crumble depending on the weight. As buildings topple, debris showers down around you. Nice touch.

The game will support 20 to 25 multiplayer maps, all unique to multiplayer and Volition is toying around with the idea of allowing a third, unnamed, force to be unlockable for multiplayer. Unfortunately, the game won't support co-op multiplayer.

Finally, Volition said that Microsoft came to them back in May or so to talk to them about someone using the Xbox 360's recently unveiled avatar system.

"We are talking with Microsoft about their Mii thing, about maybe allowing you to link up with each other in that and then go into the game."

Then he watched the Sony press conference, and the world as we know it changed. After hearing about “Metal Gear Solid 4”, as well as other PlayStation exclusives in the pipeline and the awesomeness of Blu-ray, he promptly packed up his Xbox 360 and all his games and went down to Game Stop to trade them in.

I am sure the folks at Sony are overjoyed to hear oh Jane's boy's extreme reaction to their press conference, but had he been living in a cave for two years or what? He heard about Blu-ray and Metal Gear Solid 4 and decided to go PlayStation? According to Wells, her son reads all of the news sites, participates in chat rooms, and even watches G4...oh. That explains it.

Not heartwarming story about a journalists son is complete without a tender moment at the end, so I leave you with Jane's final words on the subject.

As we left the store, I said to him, “I never thought I’d see you with a PlayStation.” “Neither did I,” he replied.

*wipes away tear and adds a link*

The Ultimate Proof Sony Is Winning [CNBC - Thanks Dean!]

In this terrifying edition of Justify Your Game, Doug Lombardi takes a crack at justifying Valve's upcoming co-op FPS Left 4 Dead. Can he persuade us in 15 seconds?