E3 is here again. And despite the downsizing, there's already been some heavy announcements. Figured it'd be easier to consolidate them all into this front page post (cuz how often do I post on the front page, really).

FFXIII coming to 360, simultaneous launch with PS3.
Nintendo unveils Wii Motion Plus.
Megaman 9 E3 08 debut trailer.

In conclusion, E3 blew.

Kotaku has some leaked screenshots of the Duke Nukem 3D Xbox Live Arcade menus.

There's no information on whether it'll have online play or just split screen, or either... but if it has online play with voice chat it'll be the best game available for Xbox 360.

[ Screens ]

I hate linking to Kotaku cause I know everyone on the planet already reads it. But if you happened to miss a day, they just reported that Ubisoft has released a trailer at their "Ubidays" event that confirms a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil!

The trailer isn't too exciting to watch, aside from the excitement caused by knowing a sequel is in the works, but if you watch carefully you'll see a very statuesque looking Jade in the background of a few shots.

Honestly I feel that high quality FMV doesn't really give off the same feel as the graphic style from the original Beyond Good and Evil, but like many others I'll be watching closely for any new information.

[ Kotaku Article and Trailer ]

It's here, the gaming phenomenon of the 21st century. The only game that might dethrone Halo 3's epic first week sales.

Did anybody besides me and Noel get the game? It is indeed excellent, maybe not as much as the hype builds it up. But it's a completely different GTA, a modern videogame with all the fixings. I kept trying to tell myself I didn't like it as much as I thought, until I stayed up 13 consecutive hours playing.

The story and dialogue are the best part for me. I'll do things like take my cousin drinking just to hear what he has to say about the latest situation. My fav characters so far are Little Jacob and Brucie.

The best part is the real world commentary. You can sit and watch the Weezl network, a very very obvious parody on Fox, and catch the latest terrorism scares or feel good news stories. At the start of the game, your experience is limited to the first of three islands, because the other islands are closed due to a terror threat. If you should make the mistake of ramming the police barricade, you'll get an instant six star (max) wanted rating. After all, you're now obviously a terrorist. Little touches like that make me grin.

Of course it wouldn't be GTA without the controversy. This version includes drunk driving, which has MADD all up in arms, wanting the game rebranded AO. Unfortunately, they failed to actually play the game. Driving drunk is HARD, basically impossible to do it without hitting a lot of things, like other vehicles, barriers, people, etc. Also, the cops will come right after you if you're spotted driving erratically, even if you don't commit a crime in front of them, which makes it that much more difficult. Seems pretty accurate to me, and an effective deterrent.

Lastly, something useful: a Liberty City map powered by Google.

[ IMDB Entry ] [ Apple.com Trailer ]

The short verdict is "see this movie in theatres."

The movie sort of feels like Jackie Chan and Jet Li wanted to leave their mark in a way that would stand the test of time while making a kung fu movie for kung fu fans. But, rather than giving it the typical kung fu movie budget, they gave it a normal budget, and made it a legitimate title which is assured to become a golden boy of the genre.

It also feels like they tried to keep it approachable to people who wouldn't get constant in-jokes and homages as is common to for-the-fan movies. Don't go into the movie with the expectation of it being epic. It's not an epic movie. It's very shonen-anime at times with long expositions about individual characters explaining their backstory and motivation (and the two female characters are given little face time, and are the only ones that either fail to achieve their goals or have to have a male character do it for them).

It's a "good" movie.

The main deal, why you need to see it in theatres specifically, is the quality of the action. If you watch this on your computer, TV, or home projector, you are going to say to yourself "it would have been better to have seen it in theatres." Don't hold any pride about the quality of your home setup; it's dangerous in this case. I'm willing to pay another ten dollars to see it again with everyone else in theatres, but I'd rather spend the time playing Brawl or Mario Kart than watch it on a TV or projector.

Great customes, great fights, great backgrounds. The production values are high. It's eye candy, and doesn't really have any notably aggravating or stupid scenes. It's obvious everyone involved cared about the end movie; nobody stands out as "they fucked up their acting" or anything.

I haven't posted any news in a while, so here's something that is sorta important to gaming fans all over the place. WiiWare, the Nintendo equivalent of Xbox Live Arcade launched in Japan this week. So basically Japanese Wii owners can now purchase cheap, small (usually, but not always) games through their Wiis by using Wii Points.

I didn't realize that the new Crystal Chronicles game for the Wii is actually a WiiWare title. It looks quite impressive, but I'm wondering how a Wii user is expected to store these games when the Wii has no significant internal storage.

One very positive aspect of this service is that it will reduce the amount of crummy games being released in disc format taking up all the Wii shelf space. The negative of this being that the good Wii games can hardly fill a shelf on their own...

Ah well, for more information, and a list of upcoming games for this service (we'll have it in two months) click here.