Matt
So far of the Big Four (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Brett Industries) only Microsoft has had their big keynote. What they showed was pretty much lacking, in my opinion. They're the company with the least they needed to do and they managed to disappoint. Microsoft announced some sort of Avatar system that should probably just be called "Mii Too" my shot(see what I did there) and a revised interface that looks like a cross between Sony's XMB and Apple's Coverflow. What exactly was wrong with their existing interface is anyone's guess. Continuing on the theme of innovating exactly the same as other people, Microsoft also announced the previously already known Lips, a blatant SingStar ripoff that includes an accelerometer to force you to sound and look like a moron. You can also use your own music, though I suspect the result won't be as polished or effective as the original.


The real fun starts tomorrow, when both Sony and Nintendo get their chance to declare themselves the victors in the console war. Sony is playing things pretty close to the chest if they have any big announcements. Nintendo, however, have already pre-announced new hardware for the Wii, an additional sensor bar that clips to the bottom and improves motion control. More details will be made available tomorrow. There are also rumours of a DS Liter, with no GBA slot, a possible, but probably unnecessary move considering the platform's success as-is. Other rumours concern new technology allowing accelerometers being directly placed on DS games, allowing for new hardware features.

I'm playing a wait and see before I begin commenting. Sony and Nintendo may have something big to offer, but so far nothing has really made me make squealy excited noises.

AJ
The pick of E3 for me so far is Mirror’s Edge. Whilst the setting feels a little HL2, and the game play feels a little Assassin’s Creed, the two seem to blend really well together. For once the colour scheme isn’t a blur of darkened sepia, but rather has a booming high contrast palette with ultra white everything that is more than a little THX1138. I especially like the fact that you can play the entire game without firing a single shot, in fact you are even rewarded an Achievement for doing just that. The game could turn out to be as repetitive as Assassin’s Creed, but could equally be a clever platformer more akin to Portal or a futuristic Mario Galaxy. Only time will tell if the developers manage to keep the concept fresh for the full length of the game.


Fable 2 is just around the corner, officially announced for October. And whilst I was originally totally pumped about the game, I’m beginning to feel a little anxious. The focus of all the dev chats and the latest E3 Demo has all been on three things. Getting Married, hanging out with your mates on Xbox Live and that bloody dog. It’s sounding less and less like the hack and slash that I was hoping for and more and more like the Sims. Yes it all looks very nice, and yes it’s cool that your xbox live mates can jump in and shag your wife, yes it’s cool that you can belch and everyone will think you’re a real fun guy... but to be frank, the game doesn’t actually look... well... fun.

The Xbox 360 “experience” update, or as I will call it the “wiification” of the 360 has me somewhat dumbstruck. Whilst I agree the 360 blades are starting to look a little dated, and yes it is extremely cool that they can just push a button and update the entire GUI, I can’t really be too excited about where it is all heading. Nintendo hit the bullseye when they said they weren’t trying to compete with MS and Sony, they went after a totally different market, and now clearly Microsoft want a slice of that pie. To me this is a fairly clear step towards making the console more “family” oriented and also making the online Media a bigger part of the console. It’s almost like Microsoft looked at the Wii and the Singstar series and thought... “hey that’s a neat idea, let’s do that”. Now we can now look forward to more singing games, more versions of Uno and more bloody Avatars. That may be great for the average American family, but for us Aussies who still can’t download TV, won’t be able to subscribe to Netflix, won’t be able to take part in the “Primetime” games and are stuck with 16Gb HDD that won’t fit any of that shit anyway... the new update smells suspiciously of Nintendo flavoured ass.

Oracle
Now that I have had a peak at almost every game E3 has thrown at me on day 1 I have already found myself falling in love with some new titles on the market and some others that will be hitting the shelves for the second, third or fifth time round. My E3 favourite goes towards Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360. If you were like me and finished the single player campaign on Insane while kicking some serious ass online I’m sure you will join me as I drool over the latest details and trailers. Using the UT3 engine it looks like Epic have pulled off another visual stunner and have thrown in a big bag of goodies which includes more weapons and online multiplayer modes. Oh, and lets not forget that GoW2 single player campaign has been described as an emotional rollercoaster. Tears and guns are a good mix.


Another title that has grabbed my attention is EA’s newest IP, Mirror’s Edge. The game is set in the future where a corrupt government is heavily monitoring public and private communications made by citizens. A bunch of rebels have formed together a network of runners to deliver packages and messages to the destination while avoiding government scrutiny. You play as Faith in a first person view as you leap, duck and jump over obstacles placed around the rooftops of skyscrapers or in offices located within. This kind of gameplay reminds me a little of Assassins Creed.. let’s just hope it won’t become as repetitive.

Resident Evil 5, oh yeah baby! I’m forcing myself not to get over excited with this game since it is a next year release title. There’s a few things I would like to quickly mention about RE5. I hope Capcom add in that special magic which made RE4 such an ultimate favourite of mine. Perfect controls + an interactive environment + smooth visuals + a killer plot = game of the year 2009. I can’t wait to get my hands on the online co-op mode! Ok, now I’ve gotta calm myself down again.

Anna
So, with it being that E3 time of year again I'm all pumped for some amazing new announcements that are going to have me bouncing in my seat with anticipation for next 2-3 years before they finally come through. However, most things talked about in the news emanating from the hub so far is pretty much what we knew already. An extra trailer here or there, a title announced officially and a few hurried projects that are vainly trying to jump on a bandwagon that already left the station.

Looking again at the line up of games expected to be covered confirms some of my worst fears, that it is the age of sequels and the quest for the original IP is slowing. The reluctance of companies to follow new ideas into fruition (as well as the reluctance of gamers themselves to move away from series they are comfortable with) is frustrating to say the least. No doubt many of these sequels will be great games, though it's going to get a bit silly when the numerals begin to get longer and more complex. We have Starcraft II, Diablo III, Final Fantasy XII, Fable II, Fallout III, Far Cry II, Gears of War II, Mafia II, Killzone II, Resistance II, Rock Band II, Resident Evil V, Saints Row II, The Sims III, Soul Calibre IV, The Sims III, Valhalla Knights II and then you have those with the same name but instead of a number they have an extra title added on so you're left with acronyms you would normally associate with over complicated medical dramas. WoW:WotLK, CoC:WaW, VP:TiP, SC:TDB, PoP:TFK all fall into this category and then they mix - N:CoNR II, C&C: RA III - these games won't necessarily be bad, but they will be rehashes of proven formulas. The expansion into new IPs is a frontier this industry is skirting around.


That being said, original IPs are still at the forefront in many a drooling fan's eyes. I'm looking forward to something (anything!) about Dragon Age. It's been waiting for a publisher for years now and recently the release date was updated to 2009. The news that anything about Brutal Legend (which would normally be welcomed as a much needed Tim Schafer fix) will not be available at this year's E3 is disappointing. Though the latest news about Mirror's Edge should allay that at least a little. The new Wii peripheral allowing for a 1:1 motion ratio is like my prayers are answered - the possibilities for lightsabers, cutlasses, rapiers and magic wands could hopefully hustle in some more melee based games. First-person slashers, anyone?

Samo
E3 day one news is boring. Yeah, call me jaded and boring but there really wasn't much in the news that I got excited about today. I mean, the most significant news was that Final Fantasy XIII will be on both Playstation 3 and XBOX 360, adding even more ambiguity to the 'which console should I buy' threads in message boards all over the world. I say significant and not ground-breaking is because we really already assumed this would be the case considering Square's recent preference for releasing on platforms other than Sony so it was really just making the inevitable official. Meh.


Other than that I had a look at the nice new Red Alert 3 trailer, which looks nice and shiny. Some people have had hands on time with Fallout 3 but I'm avoiding that because I can't take the misery of knowing what I'll be missing out on.

In other news, there's a new trailer and gameplay vid out for Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, showcasing a bit of Banjo-style vehicular action. I'm a big rap for the 1998 N64 original and the new one is shaping up to follow in the sizeable footsteps of the series nicely. The level of detail in the cartoony environments looks astounding! It's well worth checking out.

Brett
When Yug asked me to give my thoughts on E3, I thought it was a stupid idea, mainly because I'm not there, either at the Exhibition or mentally in the head. Rather than dwell on my psychiatric misfortunate though, I would like to talk about another 3 - Lethal Weapon 3.


Lethal Weapon 3 is awesome, it's got Danny Glover in it and he's a Detective and he's always saying "Man, it's my last week on the force, I'm too old for this shit" and Mel Gibson is also in it and this is when he was cool and we didn't know he was getting drunk and hating on Jewish people. Anyhow, they set off a bomb and get demoted to street patrol and then they find out about some police corruption and then they get promoted again and there's fights and crazy one liners and Data East made a pinball game about the movie, but it wasn't very good unlike those Dragon Ninja games they also made in the 1990's where you climbed on the truck and kicked bad dudes which were simply awesome.

So, in conclusion. Day one of E3 was like Lethal Weapon 3. Nintendo was like the Joe Pesci, who was kind of in the movie but totally irrelevant. Sony was like Danny Glover, who used to be cool but now is all old and shit and Microsoft was like Mel Gibson, looking kind of cool at first but then hating on minority groups like me and my buddy Spiro who have broken arse red ringing Xbox 360's that they wont fix for free.

Cav
Metallica are not only releasing a new album soon, titled Death Magnetic, but on release day you will also be able to download the songs as Guitar Hero III content!

This is an amazingly innovative idea from the guys who would have beaten you with an ESP Explorer, tried to slice your throat with a Zildjian splash cymbal or Ernie Ball strings then jammed an Easton Ahead drumstick up your arse if you even mentioned the word 'download' within 500 miles of them in the year 2000! Guitar Hero - GOOD! Napster - BAD!


So, Wii Motion Plus hey. Just like when Alderaan was blown to bits and Obi-Wan said he could feel a million voices cry out, I think I can hear a billion Star Wars fans cry out and say "Why the hell wasn't this out before they made The Force Unleashed? Could this be the accessory that will have developers heading back to the drawing board to make the ultimate 'sabre' game? I for one am really intrigued as to what this little add-on will allow a player to do ... guess we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out more.

Phil
After watching the Microsoft press conference, one thing stuck in my mind more than anything else. Old, boring men are terrible at delivering speeches and getting the crowd fired up. Yes, these guys may be the heads of various departments, but they clearly don't know shit about their products or their markets. In fact, I believe that the games mostly sell themselves, and these suit figureheads just rattle on bullshit. I couldn't even count the number of awkward silences and muted applause that went on after several Microsoft peeps half-heartedly attempted humour or excitement.


Now, don't get me wrong. I love my 360, and I'm excited about the plans for the future -- but the press conference was a pretty big letdown. Singstar and Eyetoy ripoffs, Gears 2 and Fable 2 (which looks like complete ASS, much like the first one), and Fallout 3, which should be awesome. I won't even get into the whole "banning" thing. Of course, the biggest announcement of the night came at the very end, and while it was big in theory, it's still just a port. I originally said that I would only want a PS3 for MGS4 and FFXIII, but that was pretty ignorant. I'm sure there will be plenty more exclusives over the years that grab my interest. Microsoft showed theirs last night, and they didn't reveal anything unexpected, which is usually why we sit through these two hour shows. A competent display of stuff we already knew about.

Jae
Being stuck at work where every known gaming site is blocked sort of limits the coverage one can view on E3 this year. Luckily iphone goodness has kept me well in the loop! The biggest shock would have to have been the announcement of Final Fantasy XIII is now a multiplatform game. I don't see this being that big a deal but it does make you wonder about Sony's ability to keep exclusivity on their machine. Metal Gear Solid 4 was great but the G-grill ain't got much coming up that you can't get anywhere else. Pity though as I like booting up my PS3 every now and then. Does anyone want to take bets on Nintendo announcing Final Fantasy XIII Versus for the Wii tomorrow?

Learning that Rock Band 2 will have a library of over 80 songs on the disc and over 500 in total by year's end, in amazing. Too bad I'll probably have to wait till December till I can get a PS3 version but it should all be worth it. Resident Evil 5 is shaping up to be a good looking title, watching the demonstration of how co-operative play will work it doesn't appear to be dissimilar to how Resident Evil 0 did it, in terms of puzzles. I just hope they don't have anyone working on the team that worked on the Resident Evil Outbreak titles.


The very short trailer on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was a disappointment. I'd rather see more about the Marvel MMO game than a game that centres around my least favourite Marvel characters. My most anticipated game today would have to be Red Alert 3. I wouldn't mind playing it on the 360 but only if it comes with mouse and keyboard support which I highly doubt it will. Only time will tell.