“Games like Metal Gear Solid 4 aren’t exclusive to PS3, but only possible on the PS3.”

“2008 is about software.”

The future of PS3 is about the CELL processor and processing capabilities.

256-player multiplayer game called Massive Action Game (MAG). 32 players on 8 teams in a free for all matchup.

Resistance 2. 8 player coop and 60 player multiplayer.

Resistance: Retribution coming to PSP in Spring 2009.

God of War 3 announced.

PS3 Greatest Hits coming and will be $30 and include Resistance, MotorStorm, War Hawk, CoD 3, Fight Night, RS3V, and Need for Speed Carbon.

130 PS2 titles coming to PS2 in ’08.

PlayStation Network users will have a single sign-on for PS2, PS3, and PC.

Video rental and purchase is coming to PS3. Sony, Fox, Warner, Disney, MGM, Lionsgate and 20th Century will be on the PS3. After you download it to your PS3 you’ll be able to put it on your PSP. It’ll take 60 min to download a standard definition movie. Sony is offering 85 movies right off the bat. This service will be available tonight. $15 to purchase. $6 to rent in HD/$4 in SD.

80GB PS3 will be $400 in September.

$149 PS2 bundle comes with Lego Batman game and the Justice League animated movie.

Nintendo selling 200K DS’s a week. 700K Wii’s a month.

GTA: Chinatown Wars headed to DS.

A new snowboarding game is coming out – Shaun White Snowboarding. Uses Wii Fit footpad.

A new Wii Sports Resort game where you can throw a disc to a dog, ride a jetski, or sword duel. Yes, you can sword duel on a beach. WIN!

Wii Speak is a community microphone that allows you to talk to other gamers.

Wii Music: Play 50 musical instruments with your Wii remotes and footpad. This isn’t Rock Band. Create your one music as you move the instruments including drums, piano, saxophone (by blowing into the speaker on the remote), guitar, etc.

Kotaku’s poll says that 2% of votes are Psyched, 81% Pissed, and 17% Satisfied with Nintendo’s conference. Wow. That’s harsh.

Color me bored. Wake me when she rolls over. This was a lackluster E3 for Nintendo. Wii Music is going to be a great casual game. The snowboarding game will be a good buy for anyone with Wii Fit. Other than that, I see nothing that is going to make me want to go out and buy a Wii. Parents will certainly buy Wii Music for their kids.

As I’ve been saying for a while, 3rd party developers aren’t going to want to develop for the Wii because of the niche motion controls. I think this may be a reason why we didn’t see more third party games during the Nintendo demo.

…is apparently how long humanity fought the Covenant over Harvest. It is not, gratefully, the amount of time you’ll have to wait for Halo Wars from Ensemble Studios to come out, since supposedly the game is now set for a release sometime in Spring 2009.

So, a little less than one… long… year.

Xbox360Fanboy has the latest Halo Wars trailer, which follows in the vein of the first in showing no gameplay whatsoever, but focusing on cinematic visuals, of the kind more appropriate for a game that actually uses those kinds of visuals. You know, a shooter, and not a strategy game.

TeamXbox also has the trailer and new screens, while the official site has 12 new shots in an “E3 2008” gallery.

UPDATE: I’ve added those shots into Rampancy’s Halo Wars gallery.

This trailer also replaces the original score of the first trailer, which was best described as trite and lackluster, and instead inserted the familiar strains of Marty’s “Halo Monks”.

Also, despite “Contact Harvest” by Joe Staten saying that Brutes were the primary foot soldiers in the first assaults on that colony, this trailer once again only shows Elites– no other Covenant units are shown.

It’s also difficult to reconcile the idea of a 5-year battle over a single world with everything the Halo series has told us about human-Covenant engagements. While the addition of the Spartans into humanity’s troop mix gave them parity, if not an outright advantage, on the ground, we’re told that the Covenant always retained air superiority, and since ultimately most colonies were wholly or partially glassed, this was always the deciding factor.

So the story of Halo Wars will have to come up with some good reason why the Covenant wait five years before glassing Harvest, or for some reason choose to assault it without ever glassing it.

One of those shots shows a good look at some of the UNSC… well, there’s nothing to call them but mechs, since that’s what they look like. Frankly, the devs can go on all they like about how the mechs aren’t Spartans, aren’t as strong or fast or dangerous as Spartans, and play a different role on the battlefield than Spartans… and it just doesn’t matter worth a damn.

You can’t look at one of those things in a screenshot and not think “wow, if a Spartan is this good and only a bit bigger and taller than an ODST, then that thing must be awesome. Its visual presence on the field demeans the Spartan, and I don’t see that being something that can be explained away.

GoW2 is set to be launched on November 7th.

This game is set for launch in October 2008.

Summary:

1) only SD videos will be offered
2) LIVE Party viewers must be Netflix subscribers
3) Netflix servers will handle the streaming
4) No downloading; just streaming
5) Not avialable for Silver memberships
6) Free for XBL Gold subscriptions

Here’s the official press release which misses some of the details above:

An exciting new home theater experience is coming to living rooms this holiday season. At the E3 Media and Business Summit, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) and Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today unveiled an exclusive partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. Xbox 360 will be the only game system that lets users instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix. This movie watching innovation will be available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix subscribers and will let those users enjoy streaming movies from Netflix on Xbox LIVE at no additional cost.

A growing library of more than 10,000 movies and TV episodes will be available from Netflix when it launches on Xbox LIVE in late fall, with more choices added over time. Through this agreement, along with the existing Xbox LIVE Marketplace Video Store, Xbox 360 will be home to more movies and TV shows on demand than any other device connected to the TV. Xbox LIVE quickly and easily connects consumers and their friends to the entertainment they want — with no PC required for viewing.

Netflix on Xbox 360 is an important component of the new Xbox experience, a new generation of games and entertainment experiences that will be available on Xbox 360 consoles this fall. The new Xbox experience, also announced today at the E3 Media and Business Summit, represents the first time in history that a mass-market consumer electronics device has been re-invented through free software, giving people more fun and intuitive ways to interact, play and enjoy entertainment content.

“Watching movies at home will never be the same. Netflix on Xbox 360 is an entertainment first, and we are bringing friends together with the best in entertainment content like no other device in the living room,” said John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Services Business at Microsoft. “We are creating a completely new social entertainment experience, and Xbox 360 will be the only video game system where you can access your library of instantly streamable movies from Netflix and turn any room into a virtual movie theater.”

From the Netflix Web site, members simply add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will be automatically displayed on the TV screen via Xbox 360 and available to watch instantly. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. In addition to instantly streaming movies to the TV, Xbox LIVE Gold members can fast-forward, pause and rewind, all using either their Xbox 360 Controller or Media Remote. In all, the user interface creates a highly personalized experience that puts viewers in control.

“Netflix and Xbox 360 are a perfect combination, the leading online movie rental service and the leading games and entertainment system joining forces to create an all-in-one entertainment experience with content for everyone,” said Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix. “For Netflix, it represents an important step forward in making instantly streaming movies on the TV more broadly available to our members.”

The library of movies and TV episodes that will be available for instant streaming from Netflix via Xbox 360 includes scores of Academy Award winners and nominees, episodes from a number of popular, currently running and classic TV shows, and 24 of the movies rated by the American Film Institute as the greatest ever.