You never really appreciate something until it’s gone — or in this case, chased from a city by angry gaming press with torches and pitchforks.

As E3 showed up, sputtered, then crept out of Los Angeles — hanging its head in dejected embarrassment — industry bloggers and reporters of every stripe began panning this years offering from the Electronic Software Association. Some pontificated on the trade show’s demise, stating that this year’s incarnation was merely its death-throes, and that it had become a weary, tired beast, in desperate need of being tied to a tree and mercifully shot.

Puzzlingly, the ESA seems to be the favored whipping boy when I believe that it is the developers who showed up ala the Emperor, wearing nary but a smile.

There is no doubt that E3 has been suffering from a degenerative illness as of late, but one that can hardly be blamed on the substantive lack of booth-babes with dual-side airbags. The truth is that the offerings from the Big Three have been mediocre at best, and at worst, a bloviating scrum of corporate narcissism.

How else could anyone characterize the Nintendo conference? Microsoft was a little better, and Sony continued to march merrily, if not obstinately, off a cliff called “denial.” Read more…

Reports confirm that E3 is slated to return in 2009, however it may be the event’s swan song. Gamespot’s Brendan Sinclair stated the following:

” … there are plans for at least one more E3. A representative with the event’s organizers at the Electronic Software Association affirmed that much for GameSpot today …”

The aforementioned ESA associate was then quoted saying:

“As we do every year, we’re beginning the process of surveying exhibitors and attendees to determine potential changes to the Summit … Once this is completed and shared with the ESA’s Board of Directors, we will make an announcement about the specifics of the 2009 E3 Media & Business Summit, which will occur.”

It appears that the once proud event may be on its last leg, and it is unclear just how much more verbal punishment the ESA is willing to tolerate before closing E3’s doors for good.

Source: Gamespot

When the Shake King of the Shake Dimension captures the all the cute little Merfles, he misses one. If only that poor guy could’ve run into Mario instead, because Wario could care less about the plight of these beings from another world.

That is, until he learns that the King also has a big bag of gold coins waiting to be snatched away as well. So, Wario gets embroiled in Wario Land: Shake It!, a 2-D platformer instead of a mini-game collection, and we all smile as he stuff himself down a pipe via awesome hand-drawn style animation. Read more…

While the E3 demo of the online shooter, The Agency, wasn’t playable or live, just a walkthrough of a pre-recorded video, Sonly Online Entertainment did assure us that they have gotten to the point in the office where they are having fun with the pre-alpha builds.

You may have heard of The Agency as an MMO for PS3, but they have gotten away from calling it that, since MMOs have that time-sucking stigma attached to them. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the gamers they are going after don’t spend hours and hours in Halo or Call of Duty. Read more…

New from Ubisoft’s Imagine line up of games aimed squarely at the tweeny girls comes Imagine: Party Babyz for the Wii. It’s a mini-game collection for four players where there are fresh challenges for every season, and all the characters are costumed toddlers. Read more…

Can you believe it’s been ten years of planting crops and milking cows in Natsume’s cute farming sim, Harvest Moon? We got to check out the two newest additions to the “stable”: Island of Happiness (DS) and Tree of Tranquility (Wii). Read more…

BioWare’s next big RPG, Dragon Age: Origins, has finally been shown to the world. So this is what Mass Effect would be if it took place a thousand years ago… Read more…

As a longtime Fallout fan, the possibilities of Fallout 3 have me quite excited.  When I saw the first teaser for the game, I got goose bumps.  Now Bethesda unleashes this “new” trailer over a year later, and it is almost the same trailer all over again! Read more…

As E3 approaches and I find myself frantically trying to prepare by reaching out to as many publishers as I can before they simply insist that I stop calling, I found myself today spending a few minutes on Sega’s website. As I clicked around, taking it all in, I kept thinking to myself “GO SEGA!”

Back in 2006, brandchannel.com called Sega “played out” adding that their web presence was “dull and disappointing”. To be fair, the last time I remember seeing their site it was dark and not very appealing at all, but looking at it now from a pure design standpoint it is bright, clean, inviting, and has me genuinely rooting for their success. Sega bandwagon — here I come! Read more…

Even though “development is swimming along nicely,” 3D Realms has no intentions of showing Duke Nukem Forever at E3. Hit the jump to find out why. Read more…

With E3 fast approaching, we’ve decided to put this video up to demonstrate the awesomeness that we will never see there.  The following should be considered “not safe for work,” but it might be worth the risk to watch it right now anyways. Read more…

With just a few short weeks until E3 ’08, it looks like Microsoft has another trick up its sleeve.  Spurred from a few snapped photos of a K-Mart add for July 6th, it would appear that Microsoft is planning on dropping the Xbox 360 Pro Bundle from $349.99 to $299.99. Read more…

Our source in France tells us God of War 3 will be at E3

I don’t care about what they say about the French, they’re okay in my book. They break NDAs, they’re the namesake of french fries, and on top of that they got a Sony representative to confirm God of War 3’s presence at this upcoming E3! Read more…

There is some discussion surrounding the possibility of Nintendo being set to unveil a new F-Zero game for the Wii at the E3 Summit 2008. Codenamed F-Zero Z, the futuristic racing game is expected to be developed in-house by Nintendo, rather than giving it to an outside developer (the last installment, F-Zero GX, was developed by Sega).

Some features for the F-Zero Wii game include all tracks from F-Zero GX, an online multiplayer mode and a weapon system. Read more…

If you haven’t heard by now, rumors are starting to fly around concerning Resident Evil 5 and an announcement at E3. The biggest (likely nothing more than the result of Xbox Fanboys) is that RE 5 will have some sort of exclusive time frame for the Xbox 360. Meaning PS3 owners will have to wait months if not years.

Sounds 100% bogus to me. Capcom did put on paper that there will be a “huge” announcement regarding their beloved Resident Evil Franchise, however if there was some sort of time frame, what does Capcom or Microsoft earn? Read more…

Over the past few days there has been a relentless onslaught of unsubstantiated, but most likely true, leaks which have been released and spread like wildfire. I say “most likely true” because they’ve been taken from marketing and research company Intellisponse’s website. Intellisponse is responsible, to some extent, for Microsoft’s marketing. How else would they have this MASSIVE list of things taken from them?

Although, keep in mind that they also do research and the following may be nothing more than concepts or works in progress. That said, I don’t think there has ever been such a volume of things unintentionally released. Read more…

E3 is knockers … err we mean knocking

Well folks it’s that time of year again, when the sun is high and E3 comes knocking. Hit the jump for the announced game lineup. Read more…

Gamecock, well know for their hijinks and controversy, have announced that Mike Wilson, Grand Champion of Gamecock, will stand as a presidential candidate for the Entertainment Software Association, the body in charge of organising the E3 Media & Business Summit.
Read more…

In an unexpected turn of events, industry giant Activision Blizzard has severed ties with the Entertainment Software Association, following reports that Activision Blizzard will not participate at this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit. Read more…

After months of speculation about E3 moving to another city, it has now been officially announced that it will be staying in Los Angeles. The world renowned summit will be back in it’s former home at the LA Convention Center after moving to a smaller venue last year. Read more…