[Pai Pai Master]

I certainly hope it's just as challenging as the last two games, or that they at least include multiple difficulty levels. Sure, I've played it a billion times already, but RE4 Wii Edition has once again reminded me that Nintendo does actually allow difficult games on their platforms, something that had earlier been an unknown with the Wii.

[Dopples]

The only game I really care about is pretty much Tales of the World:Radiant Mythology. It's a great time to be a PSP owner and a Tales fan

[Feba]

http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/commen...ml?id=062807_4

Mhurron, I saw this, and I thought of you.


GET OUT OF MY FREAKING HEAD, DAMMIT.

[Pai Pai Master]

Here are some new screenshots and artwork for Nintendo and Retro Studios' Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, which has been delayed to August 27th, 2007.

[Pai Pai Master]

[Pai Pai Master]

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has been confirmed for an October 1st release date in the US.


Here are some new screenshots of Square Enix's Unreal Engine 3-based The Last Remnant for PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360, scheduled for release in 2008.

[Pai Pai Master]

Here are the latest screenshots from Nintendo's biggest title this year, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

[Pai Pai Master]

Super Smash Bros. Brawl will not be playable at E3 2007.

The current character roster is as follows:

MARIO BROS. Series
Mario
Wario
Bowser
Hammer Bros. (Assist Trophy)

LEGEND OF ZELDA Series
Link
Zelda

POKEMON Series
Pikachu

KIRBY Series
Kirby
MetaKnight

STAR FOX Series
Fox McCloud

METROID Series
Samus Aran/Zero Suit Samus

F-ZERO Series
Samurai Goroh (Assist Trophy)

OTHER
Pit (KID ICARUS)
Solid Snake (METAL GEAR SOLID Guest Character)
Nintendog (Assist Trophy)
Dr. Wright (SimCity, Assist Trophy)

The current Stage List is as follows:

Battlefield -SUPER SMASH BROS. Series
Delfino Plaza -SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE
Yoshi's Island -SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: YOSHI'S ISLAND
Lylat Cruise -STAR FOX Series
Bridge of Eldin - THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: Twilight Princess
Mario Circuit (Tentative Name) -MARIOKART Series
Metal Gear Solid Stage (Tentative Name) -METAL GEAR SOLID Series

This section will be updated as new information is released.



What other characters are you hoping to be added to the Smash Bros. Brawl roster?

My top picks?

MegaMan, Soma Cruz, Bomberman and Sonic the Hedgehog for guest characters, in addition to Black Bull from F-ZERO, Ridley from Metroid, Geno from Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Wind Waker Link from The Legend of Zelda and Puu from Earthbound.

Who do you want to see cut from the Melee roster most?

I vote Dr. Mario, Pichu, Roy, Young Link, Sheik, Falco and Ice Climbers.

[Icemage]

For E3:

Xbox 360:
Big news will almost undoubtedly be Halo 3 and Mass Effect. Microsoft's on top of the console war (shakily, but still on top at the moment) and the battle for E3 is theirs to lose, with two huge titles getting ready to ship. They just need to keep doing what they're doing now to stay on top for the moment, since the 360 still has the most momentum of the new consoles despite flagging sales over the past few months.

I would expect some news about Gears of War 2, Halo Wars, Two Worlds and Alan Wake as well.

PS3:
I think Lair will raise some eyebrows as well as Heavenly Sword, but my guess is that Sony's going to raise the most buzz with LittleBigPlanet and Home. Sony needs a big E3, no doubt about it.

Oh, and it is widely expected that they will announce a price drop on the PS3 (about time, too!). They really need to get the price down below the asking price of the 360 Elite, and I'm sure they know it.

Wii:
While Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will have the spotlight for the Wii, I expect more buzz about Super Mario Galaxy.

The Wii's still selling like hotcakes, though it's dealing with a number of recent setbacks with the cancelled release of Manhunt 2, and the recent announcement that Metroid Prime 3 will not have multiplayer capability. Nintendo's online Wii service is shamefully anemic, and here we are 8 months after launch and they still have nothing to show in terms of online gameplay. It's not a problem for them yet, but the Wii is starting to live on borrowed time, as there's growing unrest about the lack of anything good to play except first party titles (which have been slow in forthcoming).

PC:
With Spore delayed until 2009, the big releases on PC upcoming turn to titles like Unreal Tournament 3 and Hellgate: London. I am personally looking very forward to seeing both of these titles.


Icemage

[Pai Pai Master]

The problem about the Wii's online functionality is that it seems that Nintendo of Japan simply doesn't care about online. And where SCE is now a worldwide company, Nintendo is different in that Japan still calls all the shots. While Reggie wants to get people pumped up for online Wii gaming in America, it's ultimately in NoJ's power to decide where to put the focus.

And honestly, when the Wii is selling this well with such a sub-par online system, what's the point in advancing that as yet?

All I can say is that I'll lose all faith in Nintendo if Brawl does not get its promised online play. That's the last Wii game I could ever care for, so as long as I can play it online, I'll be perfectly happy with whatever Nintendo decides to be lazy about in the future.

Sony's on the verge of announcing a price drop anywhere from $100 to $200 off (before you say that $200 is just impossible, look at the nosedive BD-player MSRPs have taken in the last few months). With the PS3 currently floundering in Japan without a killer-app and being outsold by the GameBoy Advance in America, Sony knows they need a price cut, and the cost of developing the console has been dropped dramatically since launch with the falling prices of CELL manufacturing, BD drive components, and hardware revisions in the console itself. Everyone expects a price drop at E3 this year and it's nearly impossible for Sony not to deliver on that, as they've made all the right hints of doing so. That won't be their only big success at E3 this year, as I think that Killzone 2 will deliver on the promise of the E3 2005 target render (why give it a two and a half hour presentation on its own, at the same time as Microsoft's press event if they weren't extremely confident?), in addition to showing some great gameplay additions that won't make it the "Halo Wannabe" that the original was. LittleBigPlanet will make another big splash, as well as more of Sony's "Game 3.0" titles, which I think a lot of people will embrace. A price cut, in addition to finally building up a solid library by the end of 2007 (with titles like Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy XIII and Gran Turismo 5 ready to bust out in 2008), I think, will finally get the PS3 on the right track. Also, don't be surprised when a remodeled PSP is revealed, with 4 or 8 GB of internal memory, a slimmer body and longer battery life, and enhanced multimedia functionality, including PlayStation Store access. Speaking of which, Sony should know by now that the PS Store sucks, and they'll likely be reworking its design to prepare for the distribution of digital multimedia. Expect a handful of shocking PS3 exclusives to show up. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Mistwalker title to show up, in addition to an exclusive Zone of the Enders 3 and Silent Hill 5 from Konami.

In my opinion, Microsoft's strength at E3 this year will be hoarding even more exclusive titles from third party developers. I think we'll see a lot of announcements from popular Japanese developers, finally ready to embrace the 360 platform like Capcom, Namco and SEGA already have. As for a 360 price drop, I think they might be waiting to see what Sony does. If Sony even drops the price of the PS3 by $100, Microsoft will find themselves at a huge disadvantage with the 360 Elite at only $20 less than the PS3, so if Sony drops their price at all, I'd expect Microsoft to follow suit by the end of the summer. I think it's pretty obvious they want to shift their price points to compete with the Wii and PS3 at the same time, while offering a middle-point for anyone ready to jump in. A $199 360 Core will do very well against the Wii, a $299 Premium still has that advantage, and a $399 Elite offers a high-tech model cutting out HD media for a hundred bucks less than a $499 price-reduced PS3. If Sony manages to cut $200 off the PS3, however, Microsoft will have issues with that. We'll see.

Nintendo is the enigma of E3 this year. With most of their titles delayed, it's hard to think about what they'll discuss other than the games that they discussed last year. I think they'll have a few surprises up their sleeve for the DS (Metroid Dread, anyone?) as well as some nice announcements for Wii's 2008 year (MarioKart, Nintendogs and Star Fox are likely contenders). I also have a feeling we'll be seeing HUGE announcements from third party developers jumping on the Wii bandwagon after the console's breakout success last year. I'd expect some major exclusive titles in development from SQUARE Enix (FINAL FANTASY Haeresis XIII?), Namco-Bandai, Konami and Capcom. Beyond that, anything else is just a guess from me.

As for SE themselves? This new Kingdom Hearts title they're working on, as well as FINAL FANTASY XIII, will probably be their biggest showings.

[Pai Pai Master]

The Kojima Productions Podcast confirmed that a new METAL GEAR SOLID 4: Guns of the Patriots trailer will debut at E3, this time in full English language. The trailer will not take place in the Middle East like all the trailers shown last year, and will debut another location that the game be set in.

On a related note, Konami will be holding a METAL GEAR 20th Anniversary Party at the end of the month, on July 24th in Japan. During the party, live gameplay of MGS4 on an actual PS3 will be debuted.

Also, a bit of fuel for the price cut fire:



July 15th, apparently.

[Malacite]

Woot! ZoE3 and SH5 {Yes please!}

There are still a lot of things I'd like to see on PS3;

Mega Man, FF7 (I'd like to see a lot of FF's redone for PS3, but 7 would be the SE's best option in terms of potential sales)
another Seiken Densetsu (Dawn of Mana was a complete fucking joke and an insult to SD fans everywhere) & Resident Evil 5.

I wonder how long we'll have to wait for GoW 3 though? I'm sure they're hard at work on it right now,
I just hope we don't have to wait until 2009 or later for it. About the MGS party, I believe Konami has some kind of
Metal Gear bundle that comes with all the games thus far (including the special edition of MGS3S which came with
Metal Gear 1&2 as bonus content) but it's only slated for a japanese release so far.

That strikes me as very odd, given that the Metal Gear Series is much more popular in NA.

I wonder if Konami will put out a new Contra or Castlevania for Wii/PS3 any time soon.

Lament of Innocence was a work of art, but it still failed the capture the unfathomable perfection
that was Symphony of the Night. Aria of Sorrow for the DS came close, but I'd still like to see either
a new game (or remake of SotN, which is arguably the best PS1 game ever) for Wii or PS3.

Using the whip and other items with the Wiimote would be kinda cool, but to me Castlevania seems
to be more about simple game play with amazing presentation, thus favoring PS3 more.

[Pai Pai Master]

Here are a handful of new images. The first are from Naughty Dog's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for PLAYSTATION 3. The second batch are from LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, which is coming to Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii and DS this fall.





-------------------








Here's a new stage for Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Bridge of Eldin from Twilight Princess. The Moblin King occasionally rides through the stage and makes a hole in the bridge. Eventually, Midna will warp the broken piece of the bridge back in, just like in the game.









Sony has issued a statement saying that they have no current plans for a price drop on the PS3, but more retailers have confirmed that they will be lowering the price next week. A BestBuy flyer from Canada has been spotted showing a new price of $549 CDN. At this point it seems Sony is simply trying to keep word from getting out too much before their presentation.

Both Microsoft and Sony will be hosting E3 coverage on their respective networks. Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store users will be able to download Microsoft and Sony's E3 press conferences, as well as download game previews, developer interviews, and other E3-related content during the event.

[Malacite]

IGN and Gamespot will likely have downloadable video feeds too. I just hope they aren't insider only - _ - (god I hate that insider crap)

[Gobo]

S-E stated at the Square-Enix Party that the next Kingdom Hearts game won't be announced until the Tokyo Game Show in September. And while I won't say no to them announcing KH2: Final Mix+ for US and Europe release at E3, I would really really doubt it at this point.