Oy.  Final exams suck.  It's weird, because this is actually the first time I've had final exams where there wasn't some other outside crisis (fight with a close friend, death of a close friend, a war), and yet I had some sort of breakdown anyway.  Maybe I've just learned to have a six-month breakdown every January and July, and I do it whether or not I want to.  Whatever the reason, I've been more or less hiding from the internet for about a month.  Basically since my name turned red.  Which sucks, ne?

Whatever's going wrong with me, I'm still getting over it.  I basically "missed" E3, but looking around it seems like most of the "new" stuff was really just new information about stuff that's been revealed for a while, or at least strongly speculated.  Biggest news, I guess, was the PS3 price drop (zOMG, really!?!) and Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo's making another Mario Kart game!).

Bleh, either way, I've been gone for a month.  What have I missed, as far as forum activities?

Quite alot, alot of E3 news, you should check all the summaries made in the news section in order to get you up to date =)

and i think you also missed some fanboy broke down and spammed the forum.
no toast included tho :(

Dont forget the 4th Xbox model.

hey nice to see you again fishamaphone, I already started wondering were you have gone...

Do you have a special job to do as a mod or is it just to have one more with a red name?

Not much happened at E3. A quick summary of E3 and Pre-E3 activities:

1. Microsoft announced (Pre-E3) a 3 year warranty on all current and new Xbox 360s due to actually admitting larger than expected failure rates. The 3 year warranty is retroactive. Every X360 owner that paid for a X360 fix gets their cash back. However, the 3 year warranty ONLY covers the "red ring of death"

2. Sony announced (Pre-E3, July 9th) a $100 price drop on the US 60gb models. It was met with large sales (supposedly. No new numbers are in yet, but some retailers have claimed 100% sales increases). However, since Yesterday, it's been determined they really aren't dropping the price. They are phazing out the 60gb model like the 20gb model. The new model is now 80gb and doesn't feature the hardware for backwards compatability. I can't remember what additions the new PS3 @ $600 is going to be. However, I am certain there are probably a million unsold 60gb models. This info was leaked out before the announcement via a Circuit City flyer for this Sunday, having the PS3 models @ 60gb for $499. This prompted Sony to announce their "cut" pre-E3.


E3 roundup:

Microsoft: Average ranking of "C" from most users here. It was very very ho-hum. All the big games (Mass Effect, Halo3, Assassains Creed, GTAIV) were showcased, and look very very good. Mass Effect got dated for November. It seems that the X360 (but I cannot confirm) is going to get some sort of special DLC for Rock Band, but is not exclusive.

A few new games were announced for X360 exclusivity. Viva Pinata Animals, a mini-game party game (to counter the casual Wii titles), and Screen It for

X360. Screen it is slated for later this year, and I believe VPA is going to be this year too. Ironically, VPA isn't Rare, it's by an austailian company.

Banjo Kazooie is basically confirmed for next year, not this year.

For E3, MS launched 2 new demos, one for Blue Dragon, and another for Ace Combat. I just DLed both, and they are both PHENOMINAL.

There is going to be a limited edition Halo 3 Xbox 360. It's cammo (or turd) green. The only speciality with this Premium X360 is the fact it includes HDMI. I speculate this means new X360s might all have HDMI outs.

Outside of that, nothing major from MS. Peter Moore was quoted (about the PS3 price cut) that it wasn't a real price cut, since they basically shifted around models, and didn't cut the price of the 20gb to $400. No MS price cut has been announced, but it's been speculated for August 1st by MaxConsole.


Nintendo:
Nintendo recieved around a "B" from the VGC community. Like the MS keynote, there really wasn't a whole lot of new shocking announcements, but they had much better showmanship.

Super Smash Brothers was dated for Dec 3rd (correct me if Im wrong?), and Super Mario Galaxy for November (again, I could be wrong?), along with tons of other games date's were confirmed.

The biggest Nintendo announcements were in new perpherials. They announced the finalized Wii Zapper for MP3, and RE:UC. The cost is $19.99 for the plastic add-on. I do not believe there is any electronics in it, just a plastic housing for the Wiimote. It looks cool though.

The next big announcement for perpherials was with their new game, Wii Fit. Alot of people here think it'll be a big seller. Think track & field, but more health-oriented. It includes a boogie board (basically), that you can run on, and various things. Nintendo has announced the perpherial will be used in other games (surfing, skating, sking, ect).

Sony:

By some of us here, it was deemed that Sony had the best conference. A "B+" or so. Sony started off with the announcement of the PSP redesigned model. It looks the same (not a DS lite), but will have a much longer (33%) battery life, and is indeed lighter. It also has a TV-output, so you can port UMD's to TVs, as well as the games. The price will be $199, but includes a free game and a UMD movie.

Sony also announced some time exclusives, and actual exclusives. Haze and Unreal Tournament are both system-exclusive, atleast for this year. Sony also gave out alot of info about Killzone 2, with actual gameplay footage. There's alot of positive buzz about the game. I can't remember the entire Sony lineup, but there was a decent bit of news about the various games Sony is putting out.


For media coverage, mainstream newspapers said Nintendo won very solidly, whereas 1up, G4, and various gaming magazines felt that MS and Sony did the best with their massive lineup of games for later this year.


Hmmm. Other news. Dragon Quest Swords sold 200k first day, Trusty Bell and Ninja Gaiden did real well 1st weeks, getting #2 and #3 for their first weeks. Sales have been just about the same, hardware wise. Check the numbers for any more relevant info.

I think thats about it.