I'm a slayer, ask me how.

http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/~r/pa-mainsite/~3/GDbyDc79cOM/

The Kinect is up on Amazon for pre-order...$150, as expected. But I'd rather pay $150 for an all new bit of tech than $150 for Playstations 2 remotes and eye-toy (which is what it will cost Sony, just SAY IT!)

Clearly, I own a PS3, but I'm not a Sony fangirl

ACK I better go to work!!!

So, I woke up this morning to an email from Microsoft annoucing there is a new Xbox 360. It's black, quiet, has wifi and 250GB of space. Yum. I'm tempted to upgrade but can't really justify it at the moment. But all that space would be glorious for downloadable Rock Band music...and who knows what else!

Then they announced that Project Natal was now the Xbox Kinect. If it does everything they are showing in the video, I think it could kill the Wii. First of all, it eliminates peripherals. You buy the Kinect and that is your peripheral for ALL of those games. No controller, no balance board - the Kinect KNOWS ALL (erm, so no making out on the couch, okay? because it's watching you and it might...ya know...blackmail you later) I'm fascinated by the Dance game they show. Honestly, the biggest thing when it comes to playing those games now is that I'd have to drag out the DDR mat, find some space for it, hook it up...oh man this would make things so much easier for games like that.

Nintendo sort of flailed around during their presenatation - teasing us with a Legend of Zelda preview, but then telling us the game won't be out until 2011 (which to me translates to "Holiday 2011"). The rest of the games for Wii were the same old, same old. Mario plays every sport ever invented while you wait for Zelda to come out. Their biggest deal was the Nintendo 3DS which is somehow 3D without the player having to wear glasses. I'm not sure how that works...it kind of freaks me out. And as much as I use our current DS, my guess is we won't need this unless a special Zelda or Mario 3D game comes out. Then maybe. MAYBE!

Sony was all about the Playstation Move, which just looks like a Wii rip-off to me. And my guess is that it will suffer from all the same issues that the Wii is currently dealing with - it's hard to design a good game with motion controls. Plus, some games are going to require BOTH the Move and EyeToy. Sony is trying to make a big deal that their controller will be out before the Kinect and be cheaper (even though Microsoft has not announced a price on the Kinect) but the obvious Wii Copy-Catting bothers me and really does not make me interested in this peripheral.

OMG so much to talk about re: E3.

For those non-gamers on my flist, E3 is the Electronics Entertainment Expo where the companies trot out all their new stuff for the fiscal year. Microsoft did their program today and, even though it is not an exclusive to their console, they premiered the Beatles Rock Band gameplay trailer. OMG OMG. I'm am so excited about this game now. The 3 part harmonies are gonna be brutal, but as I suck at drums, and these should provide a huge challenge. No word on the official track list yet, but they did say 45 songs, plus downloadable content (gotta love microtransactions) and the Xbox360 is getting "All You Need Is Love" as an exclusive.

The lovely Felicia Day was present to announce the new Facebook and Twitter integration into the Xbox Live set-up. It looks damn cool. Gold users also get last.fm to work with their Xbox, which, as the annoucer said, is most likely hooked up to the best speakers in your house (this is true).

Lucasarts let slip that not one but TWO Monkey Island games are in the works! Hopefully more details will come out as the week goes on but OMG GUYBRUSH YAY!!!!!!! Some of my most favorite games.

AD is very excited about Modern Warfare 2 - I have to admit it did look very very pretty.

Not really sure about "Project Natal" (which they pronouced "Nah-Tahl" and I was calling "Nae-tell" all day). AD pointed out that it's just the next generation Eye-Toy. Still, the facial and voice recognition thing sorta weirds me out. A little too "from the future" haha Plus how much software will that require? Am I gonna need a new hard drive??

EA & Ubisoft also did a conference today but its too late for me to watch it (it's on the DVR for later, yes I DVR'd E3, I'm a nerd) Nintendo takes the stage tomorrow, and we're hoping for a Mario and Zelda announcement *crosses fingers*

Unfortunately, I'll be at one of the local high schools all day doing book talks, totally cut off from the world of the Internetz!!! Noooo! I'm pondering taking my laptop with me and searching for wi-fi during my lunch break...but that might be too pathetic. (like that ever stopped me).

I gotta get to bed, waking up at 6am (YUCK!). TTFN

The intro to yesterday's coverage of E3 - I am so highly amused by this. There's a stupid little comercial in the front for no apparent reason, but just wait 20 seconds and you'll be at the actual clip. Gamers will laugh out loud.

We've watched 2+ hours of E3 coverage on G4 today...I agree with jimithingy, Olivia is pretty bad. I don't think she has any muscles in her arms. When she turns, they just sorta stay by her side and jiggle.

The Wii "nunchucks" are looking cooler and cooler. They showed Adam playing 'Red Bullet', and I'm not much for First Person Shooters but the Wii remote and the one swordfighting bit, I really want to play this game. Perhaps we'll start renting games again...Super Mario Galaxy looks cool too. And a NEW SONIC!

oh, and SPORE. Yes, this game has verdatum, simontrueheart, and my name written all over it. You start out as a single celled organism and work your way up to galactic domination. There was a video of Kevin Pereira playing with the creature editor and it looked like fun. (scroll down for a link to the video).

Nothing so far for DS Lite, GBA, or PSP in the reports. Perhaps handhelds will be covered later in the week.