1up seems to have locked up all the Soul Calibur news. see also these images and The 1UP Show Soul Calibur IV Special, a 16 minute look at the game.

Yes, Trailerz.

First up, a live action promo shot by Neil Blomkamp and WETA, the team that would’ve been making the Halo movie by now had Fox not dropped out. Orbital Drop Shock Troopers suit up, and the factories ramp up production on war hardware.

Now the gameplay trailer. The Covenant have invaded Earth, Chief and The Arbiter must work together to stop them and save Cortana from the Flood.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

I know, this game looks amazing, but that announcer is super corny.
Thanks to Logan for the link.

E3, the once great video game Exposition, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. What was once a never-ending cacophony of lights, sound and swag is now an invitation only press event. While we can still expect industry-shaping keynotes from the big three hardware developers, the show floor is barely recognizable. Industry giants, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, THQ and others have been relegated to a 20’X20′ space.

Quite a contrast to previous E3s where developers battled each other for total show supremacy. After last year’s expo, which was completely dominated by Nintendo and the newly revealed Wii, Sony and Microsoft decided that paying millions or dollars for little or, worse yet, negative press coverage just wasn’t worth the effort. They basically took their ball and went home. The other big companies followed suit and now we have, what I’ve dubbed, Neo-E3, or the E3 Media & Business Summit.

Moved from May to July, and Los Angeles to Santa Monica, the newly redesigned expo is meant to create a smaller, more intimate environment for developers and publishers to talk shop. Neo-E3 is also designed to make it easier for independent developers to roll out their wares to potential publishers, (even though next to no indie devs are on the roster).

Hopefully we can expect more direct feed footage and one on one interviews with the movers and shakers of the industry. The E3 Media & Business Summit will take place from July 11-13th.

What are your thoughts on the redesigned E3 expo?

The biggest event in gaming may be gone for good.

Cost, over crowding, and undue stress on developers to get games ready for the show are all a factor in an announcement expected to be made monday morning, July 31st.

Next-Gen says the convention is to be done with altogether, and replaced with multiple yearly events for publishers. Gamespot says it will simply be shrunk to a press only event.

Until we get an official press statement from ESA’s Doug Lowenstein, enjoy the baseless rumor mongering and over excited reactionaries of the blogosphere:
4CR: E3 Gone Kaput?
Joystiq: E3 cancelled for next year and beyond
Kotaku: E3 Cancelled?!
NeoGAF: E3 Cancelled for Next Year and “Forseeable Future”?
Powet: e 3 Cancelled?

Lost in the E3 shuffle since most people were actually playing the game was the 1 minute montage of in-game footage showcasing new aspects of Metroid Prime 3.
Game Informer was patient enough to record this footage and bring it to us now.
Included in the video are lots of new characters (some looking like rival hunters), the gunship air strike, and a new zip-line Samus (pictured).
Theres also 3 other gameplay movies if you missed the demo the first time around.
via 4CR

The biggest gaming event of the year is apparently so big, news from it is still being reported on.
First, look how fast the Wii ejects!
The big hit of the show was not the Wii, but the GameCube! The devkit for the new Nintendo system is based so closely on the prior generation that demo units for the Nintendo Booth were made up of just a stock black gamecube with a couple modifications to utilize the controller!
Kotaku also sat down with Miyamoto for a good 25 minute interview and he address all the next-gen hot topics.
IGN and GameTrailers have also compiled best-of-E3 lists that kinda surprise. I mean obviously Halo 3, Smash Brothers, etc took a lot of the glory, but those games weren’t playable and had only a small actual showing. IGN hands the award to Bioshock, a game I totally missed last week. GameTrailers says Assassin’s Creed, which was announced for PS3, but anyone who got to play will be quick to tell you that they were holding an Xbox 360 controller to do so (Ubisoft says they haven’t announced a 360 port yet, but considering its already running on a 360, I’d say its a safe bet!)
Last, and least surprisingly, Karima Adebibe (the rookie model currently cast as Lara Croft) tells CNN how she handles the smell and numbers of fanboys at E3.

Missed this when it happened at E3. Space Ghost interviews Microsoft’s Peter Moore at the GameTap booth.