E3 Goodies and tasty treats

E3 gets many kudos for gather together the representatives in the geek community to bring us the latest news so that we might know what is going on behind the scenes. After all every good geek, and even some of the bad ones, want crave the inside scoop. We must know the dirt!

Sweet Bethesda employees, we must thank you for finally imparting a trailer that actually gives us more than just a few teaser details. The lovely graphics have me craving more. The nuclear sling shot was a unique touch, maybe a bit over load, but then again with the Brotherhood of Steel in the Pentagon and the Enclave in little black helicopters hunting you down, maybe not. Fallout 3 is my first love, can you tell? Oh, sorry, must wipe the drool from my chin. Now on to the other news.

Square Enix shows us some much deserved love by announcing Final Fantasy XIII for the XBox 360. Final Fantasy in any form gets high marks, it’s hard to fail in this series. Other games you will see featured on the 360 are Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Fable II and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Microsoft announced that they are going to be making available 60 GB XBox 360’s in August for the same price as the current 20 GB version, 349.99 MSRP. The 20 GB XBox’s will drop in price to 299.99 MSRP, until they are gone.

The big rumor that has been confirmed is that Netflix and Microsoft have in fact joined insofar as if you have a Netflix account and an XBox 360 LIVE account you may download. Pretty cool if you have all the elements. Pretty sucky if you don’t.

I have to wonder, did Microsoft lay all their cards on the table at the beginning of the conference too early to be the big leader early? And do they have anything worthwhile to lead with throughout the rest of the conference? We will just have to see.

Los Angeles is loving E3, while XBox Live viewers hold their breath, waiting

Today is the day, everyone, the long awaited, and for some dreaded, E3 has come. Some of you have thought it had died a horrible death and was no more, and yet, no, it is ever the phoenix, resurrected and hoping to gain the field. With juicy little tidbits like trailers such as the Fallout 3 teaser, (oh please work faster Bethesda), and other newbies are Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe, you know you cannot resist drooling.

Microsoft is supporting E3 wholeheartedly by showing all their fans what’s going on inside. Tune in via XBox LIVE and you too can get your own personal invitation to E3. With a TV remote, an XBox 360, and LIVE you can watch some of it first hand.

Then take your breaks and get your news here. After all watching it all there you will want to share that news with your friends so come on back here so you can read up and send the latest to your pals. We will be keeping you updated with the juiciest indie news, smash hits we know you won’t be able to resist, and key notes that you would die if you had missed!

Is Seattle ready for all the geekiness of PAX V?

Are you ready to join Gabe and Tycho at PAX?  Aug. 29-31, 2008 at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle proud geeks will be flocking to get their Penny Arcade loot signed by the duo that started it all.  If they may not acquire a signature or hints to On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, they will garner much more geeky wisdom from the vast array of gaming heads of state that will be there.

Three days of hands on game play sound like enough to make PAX a roaring success alone.  Microsoft, UbiSoft Games, Nintendo, and Sony, are just some of the big hitters that will be exhibiting and showing of prereleases at this gaming show that stemmed from a hobby.

The ECTO-1, of Ghostbuster fame, the PAX 10 independent games showcase, and two nights of music are just teasers of what you will enjoy while you are the exploring every square inch of the almost doubled exhibition hall.  What more can one ask for, next to face to face time with Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik themselves?  Well, if you cannot settle for that, be sure to check out the approximately 72 games exhibitors that are going to be geared up ready to keep you occupied.  Game on!

Don’t Rock my Facebook, Rock my XBox 360!

Microsoft is getting on the Facebook bandwagon by giving users a mini-feed to create their own Rockband based off of XBox 360’s Rock Band Live Campaign. Install the application and you get to pick which position in the band you want to play bass, guitar, vocals, or drummer. Then pick three of your friends to be in your band, name the band and have your friends audition.

You can play mini games to compete and win higher scores and places in other peoples bands as well. There is very little point to the Facebook edition of My Rockband other than being a gimmick to hopefully sparking interest in the game. Living advertising at its finest.

If you are a Facebook user and happen to find My Rockband stunningly amazing, then you are probably one of those individuals that loves to punch buttons over and over again, ad naseum. To play My Rockband you have to tap the circles that pop up as fast as you can before they change colors. If your score beats the person you are challenging, you take their place in the band. End game. Unless you wish to challenge another band member, repeat, with slightly different music.

Having messed around with it for around thirty minutes I feel like my brain has lost mass quantities of brain cells. Seeing as Microsoft is not going to pay me for the last thirty minutes I wasted and since I would not go and plunk down the money to buy Rockband Live based on that Facebook experience alone, I decided to explore more.

Facebook has always been gimmicky in its abundance of applications. Each time I get one of those dreaded emails, ’so and so has sent you x application from Facebook, why don’t you join?’, as if just knowing the person is going to guilt me into signing up. It works most of the time until I realize that I am tired of it cluttering up my page. Most of the preteen/ teen/ young adult audience on Facebook, that uses it prolifically for social network inevitably will be the ones to gab over how awesome it is to be apart of “their very own band.”

Next it will become a status symbol to beat each other out of the bands, which as much as I don’t want to admit it, means that Microsoft hit the nail on the head marketing wise. Throngs of kids will be flooding the stores to buy Rockband, just to get the “real deal” so they brag to their friends on their Facebook about how they were first to purchase it all because they created their very own My Rockband.

Fortunately for those interested parties that wish to play the XBox 360 game, psuedo rock band with instruments that mimic the real deal fairly reasonably is more along the lines of what you will get. Just don’t dream too heavily of slamming the guitar too hard. It will break, and replacing those suckers is more than the average gamer’s salary can afford.