This year's E3 is a different monster…  or maybe I should say little monster, since this year downsized version of E3 will be 20 smaller than past years; The Electronic Entertainment Expo is now a invite-only "Trade Show" and what's even worse: I wasn't invited.  Fortunately G4 is going to cover and broadcast live the three mayor conferences (Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo) as well as live coverage from the show floor.

Anyway… I just finished watching Microsoft’s press conference and even when I didn’t expect a lot from Microsoft this year I have to say that it left me really underwhelmed.

Basically it was a presentation for their holiday games lineup (a fairly good lineup by the way, a couple of accessories for the xbox 360,  A Halo 3 Special edition console, the announcement of Disney coming to the xbox live  video marketplace and Resident evil 5 coming on 2008 And that is pretty much it.

This is the MS Lineup for this year with most of them will be released by the end of the year:

• Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
• Assassin’s Creed
• Beautiful Katamari
• BioShock
• Blue Dragon
• Call of Duty 4
• Dance Dance Revolution UNIVERSE 2
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Guitar Hero III
• Halo 3
• Madden NFL 08
• Mass Effect
• Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
• Project Gotham Racing 4
• Rock Band
• Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction
• Virtua Fighter™ 5
• Viva Piñata®: Party Animals

Bottom Line:  Get ready for Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Mass Effect.  With Mass Effect in the top of that list, I’m really excited about this game and I’ll be writing about this game and pretty much all the games in the list in the next days.

I’ll be back with the recap of Nintendo and Sony conferences.

Peace!!

When it comes to cell phones I want functionality and good user experience but my cell phone has to look good as well, and I have to say that in my mind Nokia is good at delivering functionality and good phones but they never look sleek, attractive or sexy. but with the Nokia N76 they seem to be willing to change that perception. The N76 is sexy, sleek and fun, it comes in sexy red and classy black similar to the razr, a nice 1.3 inch external screen and a 2.4 inch internal screen with a 320X240 pixels resolution, 4.1″ X 2″ X 0.5″ (4.1″ long by 2″ wide by 0.5″ thick) weighs just 4 ounces and it feels good in your hand. I not perfect though, It has some shortcomings.

Like the front screen for example while it looks I hate front screens because they get scratched really fast, they make a cell phone feel weak in your hand and they hold smudges and fingerprints. The flip mechanism is sorta stiff, and I didn’t find a way to easily open the phone with my thumb making one-handed operation is really difficult. As a matter of fact used both hands most of the time to operate this phone, and even then, it was difficult due to the fact that the surface is really slick. There’s a HUGE and I mean really huge design flaw in this phone: the USB port and Headphone jack placement forget about open the phone if you’re plugged in. And believe it or not just that is enough for disqualifying this phone for a daily usage.

The N76’s keypad is really similar to the Motorola Razr with flat nicely backlit, making it easy to dial and type and dark environments. It comes packed with a microSD expansion slot and power connector port, integrated music player that supports WMA, M4A, MP3, AAC, and eAAC+ formats, as well as DRMed songs. A built-in equalizer, 2-megapixel camera with OK image quality.

It’s a shame that there’s no integrated Wi-Fi either. and even when you get Bluetooth 2.0 with support for headsets and hands-free, The A2DP profile is not supported so if you one of those nice stereo Bluetooth headsets you won’t be using them with the N76. The OS of choice is of course Symbian (S60) a good looking and easy to use interface and the basic tools and applications, it offers an easy synchronization with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. It supports SMTP, IMAP4, and POP3. The battery life is not bad but it is not great neither.

PRO’s: Sexy and sleek body, nice interface, fairly good tools and applications available, really good sound quality, nice and big internal display.

CON’s: No support for the A2DP profile, big unforgivable design flaws, not really happy with the battery life.

My Verdict: The phone is sexy and good looking, it offers a nice and in some way unique multimedia experience but the major design flaws make the phone hard to use meaning bad user experience. for me this is a PASS, If you ask me the answer would be DON’T BUY the N76.

Quick and short explanation for non-serious PC Gamers: DreamHack is a LAN party (wait… if you don’t know what a LAN party is… You’re not a gamer at all!!! so… just check LAN PARTY @ the wikipedia) with demo competitions, gaming competitions and more. It’s arranged twice annually at the Elmia exhibition centre in Sweden and holds the world record (as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and Twin Galaxies) for the world’s largest LAN party and computer festival Last winter they checked in 10,638 people!!

I’ll miss this one but I’m sending my people to cover the event for me!!! No, seriously… One of my most hated Counter Strike enemies (and good real life friend) Hax00 will be there for an awesome CS tournament and if something interesting happens you’ll be the first to know about it here… If you’re into gaming you know this is what’s hot right now.

100TH CLASSIC GAME NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD

The Virtual Console is a specialized section of the Wii Shop channel, a service that is currently offered by Nintendo for its Wii gaming console. Described by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata as “the video game version of Apple’s iTunes Store”, the Virtual Console portion allows Wii owners to emulate past Nintendo consoles and purchase games originally released for them (NES, SNES, and N64). and this week the 100th title on Virtual Console was released - F-Zero X!

This futuristic racing game is the stunning Nintendo 64 sequel to the SNES smash hit and will have you going hell for leather! Boasting 30 different hover machines to control and more than 20 tracks, all packed with jaw-dropping twists and turns to choose from, players must use the capabilities of their chosen vessels to spin and sideswipe opponents out of the way and take the glory in victory. With five different modes including Time Attack, Death Race Mode and multi-player VS mode, players will be spoilt for gravity-defying choice! You can download F-Zero X for 1000 Wii Points NOW!

Peace!

Attention War Rock Gamers!!!

All Players of the Online Military Tactical First Person Shooter Will Receive the Unreleased Dual Berettas

Starting May 23rd all War Rock players will find the powerful Dual Berettas in their weapons inventory. The exclusive Dual Berettas, which cannot be purchased or obtained anywhere else in the game, will be available to the players for seven full days.

and by the way… if you didn’t know about this game just go to http://www.warrock.net/ and download your copy… Yes, War Rock is free to download and free to play!!! and it isn’t crappy as many of the free games that you can download (legally) from the web… this game ROCKS!!! (Ask Chenxxx if you don’t believe me)

oh! no Mac version…. PC only. (that sucks!)