The Nintendo press conference is just about to start. Time to start munching!

1. The Wii Zapper, gun shaped housing for the Wii-mote and nunchuk was shown. Looks like a lot of arcade type light gun games are going to show up on Wii, but with the ability to move around freely like a first person shooter. It’ll come out this year bundled with a Nintendo made game for only $19.99. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles can’t come out soon enough.
2. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is coming out December 3rd in the US.
3. A new Wii channel called “Check Mii Out” is coming. Looks like a Mii showcase type deal. Also, competitions to see who can make the best Mii’s based off celebrities and such. Interesting.
4. Mario Kart is coming to Wii in the first quarter of 2008. It’ll be online and it’s suggested that it’ll support a lot of players simultaneously. With the game, Nintendo is going to include a steering wheel enclosure for the Wii-mote. Like the one that came with that launch racing game.
5. Super Mario Galaxy’s coming out November 12th of this year!
6. A whole slew of “training” games are coming to the Wii and DS. Among them, a vision trainer called Flash Focus, My Word Coach, My Life Coach, and Wii Fit.
7. On the subject of Wii Fit this game uses a new control device called the Wii Balance Board. It’s basically a pressure sensitive platform that you stand on. The board is able to detect your balance center. Wii Fit will include 40 different types of workouts ranging from step aerobics to yoga. It can also measure your body mass index. It’s like an interactive workout video game. This thing is going to make Nintendo even more super rich. And imagine what else other developers could do with a board like this.

So that was it for announcements.  Not really too much news, besides Wii Fit which I think is brilliant and really make a killing in the market whenever it comes out.  Nintendo’s show was a very focused on Wii and DS as not just successful gaming consoles but as cultural phenomenons.  They showed a lot of clips from Youtube and mainstream news talking about the Wii.  Truth be told, I was pretty bored during those parts.  I know the people love the Wii.  Bring on the announcements already.

Luckily, I could use those times to run back to my computer and write the blog.  What am I going to do for Sony?  I’m expecting a really good show.  See you in a bit.

It’s officially day 1 and already it’s looking very exciting today. Microsoft kicked E307 off last night with their entertaining, but ultimately unsurprising, press conference, followed by Sony’s Killzone 2 coming out event. Let me first just say, “wow.” Killzone 2 is looking great. Check out the first realtime trailer up top on the right.

The reactions I’ve read so far are mixed. A lot of people are cautiously saying that the trailer does look as good as the original, imfamous, E305 pre-rendered trailer. Possibly because these same people were the ones crying foul the loudest over the past two years saying that the target video was impossible to achieve in realtime. Other people are genuinely impressed. Finally, people who I assume are 360 fans are still saying not impressed, most citing no reasons, others saying that the gameplay is what matters. My how the tables have turned. (see old PS2 vs Xbox arguments)

For me, I think the most impressive part of the E305 video was the animations and how lifelike they were. For the most part, that’s there along with the sheer amount of stuff happeningat any given time, but the facial animations on some of the characters just isn’t there yet. With at least six months left for development though, I think those things will definitely improve. Not bad. It’s a good day for PS3 fans.

Microsoft’s press conference ended a while ago. While we thought they might announce price cuts or another Peter Moore tatoo, we didn’t get any of that. Here’s some things that stuck out.

1. Great show. It was like a rock concert at first, with a fan band playing the Halo 3 theme song live, and Peter Moore playing Rock Band. Peter Moore, respect. That was cool. The conference died out a little at the end with the announcement of a limited edition Halo 3 360, and a strange live action trailer for that game.
2. Gears of War coming to PC. (”Surprise”) It moves so, so, smoothly, but what kind of PC are you going to need? Also, looks like Viva Pinata is coming to PC as well.
3. Speaking of Viva Pinata, a new one called Viva Pinata: Party Animals is coming out. It’s basically a multiplayer, party game, for the little ones. Scene It! also comes to 360. One game, four controllers (new controller, looks like a remote), same $59.99 price. Cool for the casual players, and I think it’s cool too.
4. Downloadable content is getting a boost from all the Walt Disney movie companies, starting tonight. Plus, Marathon’s gonna be on Arcade!
5. Call of Duty 4 looks incredible, and Assassin’s Creed is looking much much better. Can’t wait. They also showed glimpses of Mass Effect, PGR4, Lost Odyssey, Naruto, and Resident Evil 5.
6. Halo 3 single player looks really exciting. Graphically? Some scenes looked amazing. Others, not so much. Guess we’ll have to see.

There were also a bunch of stats on how the 360 is the driving force of growth in the industry. I didn’t pay too much attention to that part since stats can be made to say anything. All in all, a good show, but besides Scene It! and Viva Pinata: Party Animals, not many surprises. In fact, every game mentioned is going to come out this year (except Resident Evil 5, a trailer of which will be on Live starting July 26th.). What’s coming after that? We need something to look forward to.

We also saw the effort Microsoft is putting behind making the console a bit more family friendly, with stuff like Naruto, and some other licensed games.

I also got the feeling that people in the audience didn’t know how to react to another Xbox 360 variant being released so soon after the Elite. Kinda killed the mood at the end, as I’ve said.

So, not too much new, but it was fun. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

News! Tuesday, July 10th (Last Update 4:20 PM):

1. USAToday has the first ever in-game screenshots of Killzone 2! Looking pretty good. The background textures seem a bit simplistic and flat, but it might have been done so they could cram in all the effects goodness. The unveiling’s tonight!
2. Square Enix has opened a US branch for their store. Yay for swag!
3. Kotaku’s got highlights from an interview with Jack Tretton talking about a video and other media download service that’s being worked on for the PS3. The news was almost an aside to the announcement of the 80GB PS3, so it kind of got lost yesterday. Other sites guess that the service will probably be mentioned at E3, but not shown.
4. [UPDATE] Trama Center: New Blood is revealed for the Nintendo Wii. Looks about the same, but now there’s two player co-op. All right! When do we get a brow mop attachment for four player action? The new game follows two new characters and features a brand new story. In additon, it’ll also be fully voiced and run at 480p in 16:9 widescreen. Look for this one before year’s end.
5. The Playstation Network was down a little while ago [update: for routine maintenance, says the official blog]. While it has been restored, the Playstation Store is still undergoing some work. Massive updates coming? [UPDATE] Well, the Playstation Store is back up with a little bit more user feedback, ie. the tabs have rollover effects now, and a bit easier navigation with L1 and R1 enabled as back and forward, respectively. Hopefully to allow us to better browse the massive updates tomorrow. Yeah.
6. New units are being featured on the Starcraft II website: the Colossus and the Warp Ray. The site really needs to be seen by oneself, so I’m not going to describe it. While Starcraft II won’t be playable at E3, it will be shown. It’ll be playable for the first time at Blizzcon in August.
7. The news isn’t coming as rapidly yet today, so… news from Smash Bros. Dojo. A new stage from Twilight Princess was revealed this week, in addition to a new supporting character, Dr. Wright, from the Sim City game on SNES. Screenshots of the new stage and Dr. Wright’s supporting attack are below.
8. According to Playstation Universe and confirmed on the Playstation Underground boards, there will be a lot more Killzone 2 screens released in the coming days. What’s more interesting is that there’ll be a Killzone 2 gameplay trailer on the Playstation Store. No word on when, but exciting news nonetheless.
9. A link has emerged via Threespeech to a slightly higher quality version of the Gamer.tv Heavenly Sword feature. It’s the same as the one I have embed at Storpi.com on the right, so it’s worth checking out. Internet Explorer required.
10. IGN’s got a hands-on report on Assassin’s Creed. Click here to read it for yourself.First of all, Assassin’s Creed is an action game that has stealth elements. You character is almost always on the move, and it seems that quick reflexes will be a must. However, there’s no platforming as movement throughout, whether it be climbing walls or bounding across rooftops, is automatic as long you’re holding down the right buttons and tilting the analog stick in a direction that Altair can move in. So if there’s a place to step or a ledge to grab onto, just point the analog stick, hold the buttons and off you go.Fleeing from guards involves only breaking line of sight, either by hiding or blending in with the crowd. The guards are smart though, so once they know you’re around, they’ll be more suspicious of any situations you might precipitate. Animations are fluid and natural looking. In fact, the whole world seems that way as IGN didn’t run into any situations in which they felt limited by the game world. Everywhere they wanted to go, they could go (except indoors). There’s some bugs, but come November, hopefully they’ll be fixed. Watch for this one.
11. New details on GTAIV from Destructoid.com
    

    - The cell you saw in the trailer appears to be a big part of the game. Instead of buying weapons at Ammu-Nation you can call “Little Jakob”, a Caribbean weapons dealer, who will provide you with guns.
    - There is a men’s wear store called “Perseus”
    - The “Tw@ Café” internet Café from GTA III is back. You can surf the Internet from every computer in the game.
    - You will be able to use taxis to get around. You can watch the drive from the ego-perspective or you can skip the whole thing by pressing the proper button.
    - Every crime committed increases the wanted level. As soon as you reach a certain level a search area appears on the radar. If you escape from such an area without being spotted by pedestrians/cops, the wanted level falls back. If you are spotted by a witness, the area changes to the place where you were last spotted.

12. Like Lego Star Wars? Lego Indiana Jones might get announced.
13. The brand new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer will be up on the Playstation Store immediately after the Sony press conference tomorrow morning. Sweet! I think I’ll be using Remote Play tomorrow.

Check back for more updates throughout the day.

Sorry about the lack of images to break up the monotony.  E3 is coming soon, and I want to be able to get the facts up as quickly as possible for you, readers, sparce as you may be.  Besides, images might get discovered at work.  Heh.  Storpi, the work-friendly blog.  Yeah.

List of Games I’m Looking Forward to Seeing Again (PS3, PSP, PS2):

1. Heavenly Sword - Hoping there’s a demo of this coming out in the next two weeks. 
2. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune - From the makers of Jak & Daxter, should get some new videos on the PS Store.  It’s coming out in the Fall.
3. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction - Cliche for me to say, but it’s looking Pixar quality.
4. Lair - Dragons, 1080p, 7.1 channel surround.  Maybe time to get that HDMI cable.  Demo for this in July, I hear.
5. LittleBigPlanet - If this comes out at the end of the year, WOOOOHOOO!
6. Warhawk - Surprisingly, this could be the best online game Sony has ever had on a Playstation.  Not really waiting to see it.  Waiting to play it.
7. Metal Gear Solid 4
8. Home - Not really a game, but wow.  If you’re not in the Beta, let me say, wow.

I’ll add to the list as I think of things.  Who says there’s no games?  Foolish.  It’s like how we’ve gotten used to saying the PSP has no games and that 360’s breaking down is a result of user error.  Pttttbp.