It has practically come and gone. Yes, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) started Monday morning and is to end Wednesday. Most of the major annoucements have already been fullfilled (or should i say, unfullfilled) in the press conferences between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Here are some of the highlights:

Microsoft:

- "Fallout 3" will have exlusive DLC

- "Resident Evil 5" announced. Is set to have online two-player coop campaign. Release date set for March 13 2009

- "Fable II" in October 2008

- "Gears of War 2" on November 7th, 2008, has 5-player Coop

- Xbox Live gets content from NBC/Universal, Netflix on-demand, and a new Marketplace layout

- XBL gets new avatar system (like Miis)

- "Uno Rush", "Geometry Wars 2", and "Portal: Still Alive" all downloadable games on XBL

- "Rock Band 2" playlist revealed, will allow for all "Rock Band 1" songs to be downloaded onto your hardrive and playable in "Rock Band 2" for a fee

- "Final Fantasy XIII" coming to 360




Nintendo:

- "Shaun White's Snowboarding" game to use the Wii Balance Board

- "Animal Crossing: City Folk" for Wii in 2008

- New periphreal known as "Wii Speak" which is a microphone that stands on your sensor bar. Allows for online chat, compatible with "Animal Crossing: City Folk"

- "Wii Sports Resort" announced for spring 2009. Will have mini games like "Wii Sports" but more related to the beach. Comes bundled with a motion sensor periphreal that increases accuracy with the Wii Remote motion sensing.

- "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" announced for the DS

- "Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades" for the DS announced. Same as original, just more songs

- "Wii Music" announced for the Wii. Will be a musical game using different Wii periphreals to play over 50 instruments including piano, saxaphone and more. Will allow for user-created content





Sony:

- "Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty" available on Playstation Network for download for $14.99 this summer

- New downloadable games on PSN: Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic - Pain: Amusement Park - Fat Princess - Crash Commando

- New PSP bundle announced. Will include "Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters", 1 gig memory stick, "Echochrome" and "National Treasure 2" UMD

- PSN store to have movies available to download for rental or to own. Rentals look to be about $2.99 - $3.99 per rental. To own, around $14.99. Can also be played and downloaded on your PSP

- "Resistance: Retribution" for PSP announced. Will be played in third-person in Spring 2009

- "God of War 3" announced. No gameplay footage shown, just a 20 second trailer

- 80gig PS3 for $399 in September

- New PS3 game called "MAG: Massive Action Game" to have 256 player online battles




And thats it. Nothind truely shocking, almost no games announced. Theres still one day left though. If you would like to discuss E3 in general, talk HERE

Mario Kart Wii

Not too much has been said about Mario Kart Wii but that doesn't stop us from being excited about it. The game is set to release on April 27th. The cool part, if you haven't noticed already, is that it comes packaged with a free Wii Wheel. Maybe I can get my parents back into playing games with me, eh?

On another note, it has been reported that "snaking" has been taken out of the game. For those unfamiliar with snaking, its basically when you constantly use your boost even on a straight-away by keeping your kart sliding. Instead, the boost only lasts for as long as you keep sliding.


Smash Bros Brawl

Is everyone enjoying Brawl out there? Good! If you're having some issues with the online capabilities, I wrote a quick post on two possible fixes to make it a bit more bareable. You can read it HERE.

Also, as a quick reminder, don't be shy to add people's Wii Console Codes and Brawl Friend codes! I should also mention that you can only send replays and pictures to friends if you have both the Wii console code and Brawl friend code. I send pictures and replays out everyday, so if you haven't added my Wii Console Code yet, please do!

We finally got a Japanese version of Brawl! Read on to view my impressions and a link to our thread discussing others' impressions.