E3 Rolls on like an unstoppable tank. Many of the big announcements are made, so today and tomorrow will focus primarily on 3rd parties showing off all the games they’ve been whipping their development teams to get demo ready for the last month and a half. So today is the chance for the press to play the games, try to get a few more questions answered, and meet Adam West.

An amazing thing has happened to Mario. While Galaxy grabbed the glory in the press conference and initial reports, fans are rallying around Super Paper Mario on GameCube. It looks to be as much a classic throwback as New SMB on the DS. One fan I heard even called it the Yoshi’s Island of the Cube: A game on a near defunct system that pushes the limits technically and creatively. Luckily, Cube games will still play on the Wii, so I have no doubt if this turns into a great game it will find its audience.

Since its quiter clear we all love Wii now, WiiGamer has nabbed some screens of the Virtual Console. You get box art and a screen that maps out your controller before getting into your classic game. If you still don’t believe, then theres lots of people who do. The line to play Wii is 3+ Hours. Thats longer than any line as Six Flags, folks.
Most impressive thing I’ve seen today is Sonic for PS3 and 360. I thought the Dreamcast version of Sonic Adventure 7 years ago looked
pretty spiffy, but its amazing what a little more horsepower can do. I’m willing to forgive the less pleasurable elements of the last few Sonic games if this one can deliver.

In somewhat disheartening news, Nintendo may be finally laying down the Game Boy. N-boss Iwata says the DS is such a success they’re in no position to develop another portable to succeed the GBA.

Peter Moore rather succinctly summed up my opinion of the PS3 price: “Tell me why you would buy a $600 PS3. People are going to buy two (machines.) They’re going to buy an Xbox and they’re going to buy a Wii… for the price of one PS3.” Kaz Hirai insists gamers are getting a deal, and that fans will stay loyal to the PlayStation. For your sake I hope that works out, Kaz. People ain’t flocking to the PSP.

Optimus Prime also showed up at E3. Why? Heh, no idea. Haven’t heard word one about Activision’s Transformer game.

Scouring the internets, I had a hard time finding anything else that was actually “news.” Its all just impressions and previews now, which is fine and good by them, but I see no reason to link 3rd party conjecture when I can’t offer my own.

The Nintendo press conference has already gone down, the Microsoft one is still coming. Want some of the important points of an already insanely busy day?

Nintendo Wii still doesn’t have a release date (they say “Q4”) or a price (everyone implies $249), but it does have a launch list including Zelda Twilight Princess, which will be released on both GameCube and Wii on the same day. Other announced Wii titles: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, New Fire Emblem, Rayman, Sonic Wildfire, and Super Mario Galaxy!

And anyone worried that the WiiMote won’t be any good for playing older games on the virtual console need only look at the attahed image.

Lots more info after the jump!
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Lets get the biggest news out of the way: PlayStation 3 launches Nov 17th in the US for $499 with a 20 GB hard drive and for $599 with a 60 GB hard drive. They’ve also ditched the boomerang controller for… a controller identical to the PS2. But wait! Its got motion sensors too! Its an obvious last minute addition, as they’ve got no games to support the feature.
Wow. Just wow. Kotaku and Jostiq have excellent minute by minute coverage of the Sony Event.

Glossed over by Sony is what else will be missing from the $499 PS3 bundle: Wireless, HDMI, and Memory stick support.

The show doesn’t even start until Wednesday officially and theres already so much to talk about!

Other big news announced today: [Read the rest of this entry…]

This is Sony’s answer to Ninja Gaiden. A hyperactive button masher with simple puzzles and upgradable weapons and abilities that’s hyper violent and relentless in it’s presentation. You play as Kratos, a really pissed off guy with two blades grafted to his arm. Your mission is to kill Aries, the god of war. Throughout the game you encounter many souped up versions of mythological greek figures such as the minotaur, hydra, and Medusa. Also of note are several action sequences which require you to keep your finger on the control pad not unlike Resident Evil 4. Following the sequence properly can lead to a really big payoff. For action fans with a PS2, this is a must buy for the system, especally since a sequel is coming early next year.

Well not exactly, but you get the idea.  A while I told you about The PSP version of Nintendo…… I mean a PSP game called the Dog Happy Life, now Atari is getting into the act with a game called Hot PXL.  The game puts players in the control of a character called Djon and play more than 200 micro…I mean minigames.  These include stage diving, skateboarding, and trying to cross a street.  The game also promised downloadable content.  Hmm…a collection of minigames…where have I played this before?

An inventive homebrew app writer has created the first online cross platform portable game.
TIC-TAC-TOE!
Ok, so the game in question ain’t exactly that exciting, but the implications of common code and compatibility for future homebrew applications are grand!
Thanks Caliongeo!

digg?

As noted earlier today the Playstation 2 is dropping twenty dollars to $129.99.

And we ask, why didn’t they go all the way to $99? I think I know why. The PS3.

Every pundit, analyst, and scholar and predicted the pricetag of Sony’s third home game console to be anywhere between “very expensive” to “EXTREMELY expensive.” Sony knows it will have to east some loss on hardware, especially if they want to stay price competitive with the Xbox 360, or even competitive with a high end gaming PC.

Microsoft was able to afford a consistent loss on the first Xbox because they have a software department that pulls in quite a bit of money. Sony’s portable electronics empire it built in the 80s has been toppled by Apple’s iPod, and their home theater department doesn’t exactly dominate the market either. The most successful arm of the Sony machine is gaming, specifically the PS2.

By still being able to scratch a profit off this 5-year old console, they’re suring up a warchest to keep them stable for the coming Playstation 3 launch. This is not to say Sony will be able to afford to get a new box out the door for $299 or even $399, but it will substantially help them to continue selling the PS2 for the highest price the market will bear. If theres still people out there who don’t own a PS2 and are willing to drop $129 on it, then thats a few more dollars Sony can roll over into padding out a PS3 launch.

Sony really can’t afford to lose the market to Microsoft. And honestly, we all know that that Sony has had some of the best developers working on their systems in the past decade. So the only real deciding factor in the Xbox 360 challenge is price. Every penny will count.

According to Joystiq, Sony has announced it will be lowering its price for its Playstation 2 from 149.99 to 129.99.

Sony Computer Entertainment America Lowers the Price of
PlayStation(R)2

Computer Entertainment System to $129.99

FOSTER CITY, Calif., April 20 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. today announced that it has made its PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system more affordable than ever throughout North America.

Effective immediately, consumers can purchase the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system for a suggested retail price (SRP) of $129.99/$139.99 CND. The company expects this latest price move to fuel consumer demand even further.

PlayStation 2 is the most popular gaming platform in North America, Europe/PAL territories and Japan/Asia, the only gaming platform to enjoy such widespread global success. To date, more than 101 million PlayStation 2 units and approximately one billion pieces of software for the PlayStation 2 have shipped worldwide, making it the fastest-selling gaming platform in the world.

I was hoping they would cut it to 99.99 like the Gamecube. That was clearly not what they had in mind though.