There is a reason why I consider Splinter Cell Chaos Theory to be one of the best stealth games released. It's not the story. It's a standard Tom Clancy one with that it entails. But the feeling of the game. You get that special feeling when you pull of that perfect grab attack on someone right as they are about to turn around or feel the blood pumping as you are trying to avoid a patrolling guard. The first Splinter Cell game that I tried was the second the series, Pandora's Tomorrow. It was good, no doubt about it. Although some parts just felt... forced.

The thing is that they did wrong in PT was that they forced you into firefights at a couple of occasions. When you think about that it just sounds so wrong. We are talking about a stealth game here, sneaking and subtlety should be the norm. And yet the game threw you into situations where the only solution was to shoot your way out. With a control system that really wasn't made for firefights. The other parts were great but those sections just stood out like a thorn. This is why I like CT, it gives you options. Yes you CAN shoot your way through a level. But why do that when you instead can lurk in the shadows and take out the enemy with a number of various moves. CT does sneaking good. It emphasizes the need for noise disciple and using light and shadow to finish your objectives. It makes you act cautiously. It makes you plan and think on how to deal with a patrolling guard. In short, it's stealth gameplay at it's best.

Which makes me somewhat sad to see the way the Splinter Cell series has gone.

I never really checked out Double Agent, the feeling it gave me when I read the previews was one of a strange deviation to the core gameplay of the game. The change of Sam Fisher character in DA felt strange and odd to me. And honestly, the new game in the series, Conviction, isn't that much reassuring. The initial promises sound good with going back to more stealthy gameplay. However as I kept reading previews and such I was left with a bit of a sour feeling.

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Gone is the efficient secret agent from CT with his dry sense of humor and now replaced with something closer to Jack Bauer. And then there is the apparent push for more action in the game as well. It just feels... wrong for a series that I felt embodied stealth gameplay a lot better than a lot of other games in the genre has ever done.

Now I could of course go on a tangent about console players and their needs for fast gameplay and such and blame them for the decline of games over the past few years et cetera et cetera. But I won't really.

But at the same time I do realize that the fault lies there somewhat. As games has become popular and popular over the past few years there has been a change in how they are made. The change from faster or wilder gameplay is becoming more apparent as companies strive to create the next big hit for the market. While there are certainly slower games out there they are sorta overshadowed by their counterpart. A change that does require some sacrifices.

One of these victims I suppose is stealth games. I am somewhat having a hard time coming up with stealth genre games in development that goes over the number five. Games like Assassins Creed 2 and Thief 4 instantly come to mind as well as Alpha Protocol. After that I am coming up with nothing substantial.

It's a shame really. In this world of fast shooters and massive online games there really needs to more games where it's just you putting the fear of the dark into your opponents.

Ah, the future. What marvels does it hold for us all? Will it be a glorious new golden age for humanity? Or perhaps the bane of us all? Those two will probably take a while to happen, but a lot of things can happen. Perhaps not in 3 years from now. But something will happen at least. What will really happen is up for speculation. So hey, let's speculate.

Okay, let's say that we, in our society, continue to advance in the technological pace we're in right now. What will it lead us in the span of 3 years? By looking at the latest cutting edge technology one could say that within three years, plasma TVs will become a commonplace in every normal house, since the prices continues to go downwards to make them affordable by everyone. The same would probably be for bigger sound systems. (But after seeing my dad almost getting grey hair when installing it I'm hoping they will make it easier in the future.) Otherwise one could guess that dual-core computers become more and more common as their prices continue to go down. Then I would guess that Solid-state drives (More or less flash drives but bigger) will start to get a bit more available at cheaper prices. (Current price is around 5,000 USD for a 128gig Solid-state drive.) Otherwise we can probably see even more miniaturization in the mobile phone field and the phones themselves getting more and advanced and filled with technical doodads. Whatever happened to the phone you just used for calls and messages? I almost whish they came back. Because I barely use any of the supposedly cool and awesome features on my cellphone. I use it for calls, sending messages and sometimes accessing the schedule over the internet, and at random times snapping off pictures with the camera. That's about it really. The rest of the stuff I don't really need. But I digress. Someone maybe uses which makes it valid to have. They should really make a simpler mobile phone called iEasy or something. Just have the basic functions and nothing more. I remember reading some news a year ago or so about that they actually made such a phone for the Japanese market because the current ones became just too advanced for their own good. Build me an iEasy phone and I'd buy one actually.

Honestly I don't think anything really major will happen in the next three years. Sure we'll see some improvements to things, like cellphones and computers, and probably some interesting new gadgets from Apple, who seem to be really on top on that, if you discount the fact that they seem to be spitting out iPods at an increasing rate. But then again, with the rate of them breaking down it is hardly that surprising. Coupled with the abject fanaticism of their fans they probably have their future set for the time being.

What else can we speculate about? Will the biochip technology be commonplace in three years? I myself doubt that really, since I don't think we've really reached that stage of miniaturization for that thing to be able to happen. Maybe well see breakthrough in the field of cybernetic prosthetics and so, making arms look even more lifelike and act like a normal hand. But bio-computers and turning us into cyborgs is at least 10 years into the future. Robotics and AI is almost the same, despite the advances that have occurred in the last couple of years I don't really think we'll be seeing that many robots in our daily lives in three years. If so I almost hope they've managed to deal with the Uncanny valley syndrome regarding robots and them looking like humans. Otherwise we'll be having creepy crawlies every time we try to interact with the robots of the future. Either that or making them look like robots instead of humans. Not that it matters anyway, since they'll probably end up enslaving us all and take over the world... If you'll excuse me, I need to reread "How to survive a robot uprising."

Now this requires some back-story, so bear with me here.

A couple of weeks ago, the power unit for my flatscreen managed to break down without any explanation. When I woke up the next morning after turning off my computer it was turned off. So for a couple of days it managed to work if I fiddled around with the power cable a bit. But one day it apparently just had had it and died permanently.

Thankfully my flatmate had a CRT screen I could borrow for the time being as I went out price hunting the following days.

One thing I've forgotten is how much a CRT screen actually hurts when watching it. Especially if you've used a LCD screen before and then have to go back down to CRT as I did. Sure it allowed me to use my computer by dang my eyes hurt while using it. It doesn't get better that my computer table is way too small so the screen was about 5-15 centimeters from my face.

So for a couple of days I went out hunting for a cheap flatscreen, or relatively cheap at least. A couple of days went by as I looked around while at the same time dealing with classes and everything. I had checked every place I knew that sold computers without finding a really good screen and at the same time not being extremely expensive. I actually knew a place that was about to open that apparently was very cheap. So after classes were done I just hoped on the bus and went over. Thankfully this was around midday so the giant opening ceremony had apparently finished a long time ago so I didn't have to bother about queues or anything. Anyway, so I went and was quite impressed with the large selection of things they had. But of course the thing I really needed was a new flatscreen so I more or less went there straight away.

And then probably spent at least an hour or so (I have no idea since I didn't check my watch) on which one to pick. I called a friend, my dad, my younger brother for opinions about what to pick. Now I'm not a techno-idiot really but I like hearing what other has to say about things to. So after a while I settled down on a 22" Widescreen monitor that didn't cost too much in comparison to other models. I also picked up a webcamera that I needed for a course assignment of all things.

Now, the problem for me now was, how was I supposed to get this stuff back to my apartment? This was quite a distance away. I mean I couldn't really bring a 22" flatscreen with me on the bus could I? Thankfully one of my relatives who lived in the same town was off from work so I called her up and asked if she could drive me home. Which she could thankfully.

So after dealing with some parking issues since the parking lot was still full I got my items stashed in the car trunk. My relative had mentioned on the phone that she wanted to check the place in too. Which I had nothing against really. So we went back in and started browsing the games section. She apparently wanted some new Singstar games, but ended also up buying a new DVD-player too.

And then we came over to the DVD section. And I think I had stepped into a minor section of heaven, because that place had a lot of DVD collections that I hadn't actually seen before. I was in sort of a nostalgic heaven while seeing season boxes for series like MacGyver, A-Team, Miami Vice, Knight Rider and SeaQuest DSV. (Now in hindsight I almost regret not buying that SeaQuest box. Almost.) As I was looking through the shelves I came across a movie trilogy I hadn't seen in years. Namely Jurassic Park. For I actually found the Jurassic Park -The Ultimate Collection Edition while looking around. I actually think I let out a minor shout of joy. For it had been years since I actually saw any of the movies, and probably even longer since I read any of the books. (Might just need to buy them someday.) So I picked that one up and despite being tempted by other DVD. It's really hard to choose between Stargate SG-1 and Jurassic Park honestly. But as a guy I can't really say no to dinosaurs, and despite being 20 years old now, I still can't say no to them. I'm such a horrible geek sometimes. ;)

It actually took me a while before I watched them. Mainly because I was busy with other things, but then I sat down and watched the first movie on my 22" screen. I actually don't even have a TV in my apartment. So after trying to figure out what program to properly play the DVD with, I finally managed to sit down with some soda (next time it's gonna be beer. That's for sure) and chips and prepared for a journey into childhood nostalgia. And honestly, it's still as good as I remember it to be.

While some nowadays would consider their special effects of the movie rather lackluster there is still something very grandiose and special about them. The initial encounter with the Brachiosaurs is still really impressive and the dinosaurs don't even look CG, instead they look almost real in their appearance. There isn't that weird uncanny valley feeling you can get sometimes when looking at them. They blend in so well with the background despite being CG. For me it was like an orgy of childhood nostalgia from the opening up to perhaps the best part of the movie. Namely when the Rex makes it appearance. There is something special about that scene that makes it so awesome and memorable. Could be that the mix of animatronics and CG was so good, or maybe just the general feeling of it. I almost had a miniature geekgasm when I saw it.

Sure the movie might have its faults when it comes to acting and so. But for me that move still remains to be special and memorable. The same goes for the sequel for that part. This is almost as awesome. Probably because I have a minor soft spot for the Rex, and the scenes where is rampaging through San Diego is really impressive and fun. I mean what can be cooler than having a miniature Godzilla rampage through a city? Probably two of them. But you have to be happy with what you get. But the buildup for the truck scene with the two Rexes is obviously a bit of homage to the first movie in terms up buildup and tension. But at the same time it probably gets a bit better. Why? Instead of one T. Rex there is two. And some things just get better in numbers.

I will however not watch the third one. I remember seeing and thinking that it lacked something. Sure the Spinosaurus is impressive and all. But compared against the Rex it lacks a certain brutal edge. And the Raptors felt just a bit too... goofy almost. In the first two they had a cunning and brutal edge to them. But in the third one they almost seem too smart for their own good. The whole sneaking kill thing that they had in the first two seemed somehow lost in the third one. Sure it's fun to see that they have a sense of continuity and all and probably the most overkill rescue squadron I've seen, but still JP3 felt lackluster compared to the other two.

And honestly I dread the fourth one. Yes. There is a JP4 in the work. And according to the latest rumors it supposedly has dinosaurs using guns. I wonder when and where the series managed to blunder itself into the B-Movie action world. Granted that the other movies might have had that aspect in themselves. But their execution and special effects make them look more like A-level Science Fiction rather than some absurd B level fest. Who knows, maybe that was just a rumor and we a new romp among dinosaurs.

What I need to do soon is get my hands on the books again. And maybe some good fact books about dinosaurs. I wonder if you can pull of a good PnP RPG session with Jurassic Park flair. Would have been interesting to do.

When it comes to finding things on the internet it's both a marvel and a pain at the same time. Sometimes you never find what you want and sometimes you find things that you never imagined finding, or in some cases, never ever wanted to find. *shudder*

Alongside all the mainstream albums and movies you commonly find you often come across odd little gems that you've never heard about. For example, I had never heard about the bands Stabilizer or Captain Dan & his Scurvy crew if they hadn't been linked at a site I frequently visit. The list can really go on for everyone. We've all expanded our tastes in music and movies thanks to different little things we've found on the Internet.

These little niches of things are what Chris Anderson calls The Long Tail, and these niches have expanded beyond their old limits and almost into mainstream. But there lies the risk too. When the niche hits mainstream it has stopped becoming a niche, doesn't it lose its attraction? For isn't it the part about it being a niche that makes it so attractive to watch/listen to? The sense that you belong into that small group of people that like the niche and when that goes mainstream the feeling of sharing something rare goes lost since everyone starts to like it. So what's the point of liking it when all of a sudden everyone does? The sense of camaraderie goes lost when the fan base explodes into thousands of people expressing the same love of what you liked. With all the availability of material and the rapid mainstreaming of niches the problem in the future with the Long Tail is that it might become obsolete as the tail becomes shorter and shorter. It won't disappear since a lot of new niches keep on developing all the time. But as new niches become even more mainstream its viability may become less important as a whole.

Finding the right thing on the Internet can be a pain. No matter how many parameters you add to the search it still doesn't turn up the things you were looking for. The solution to this is to change the web content into something that can be expressed in a natural language, but this would also ease the way software agent's process information to quickly handle queries. This is what researchers call a Semantic Web and it is supposed to be the future of the Web.

But is it a feasible thing to do? Is it actually possible to convert the rigid structure of the Internet into something more free flowing to allow an easier search of what you need? Especially for something as large as the Internet. While at the same time it would speed up the time you spend looking for things on the Internet, is it all that feasible to pull off? And at the same time try to retain public privacy, as advertising and such can get extremely specialized than it is today and the meaning of spam mail could probably change as well. At the same time though it would help you gain access to information at very rapid pace. This probably in turn could lead to information overload if the software agent's aren't made to handle this and provide the information in an organized and simplistic way. The idea of a Semantic Web has its promises and drawbacks but it could in the end probably be a good thing for us all. When it comes that is. And by the current outlooks it's a bit far away for it to be able to change the entire Internet. So we'll be stuck with the good ole search methods for a while. So don't start thinking it's gone yet.

The PC is probably one of the single important things in our society, at lot of our daily activities circle around the PC and its functions. It is therefore somewhat interesting to watch a documentary like Triumph of the Nerds (TotN) to see how the development went. However, there is one thing that strikes you the minute you start watching it. This is its age. Being done in 1996 it makes the series 11 years old.

It can be said that some documentaries age well, you could probably pick up an old National Geographic documentary about nature or history and still get a feel of relevancy. However, with TotN you really cannot. While it does a good work of informing you of the early history of the PC, by the second episode it starts to show its age quite severely and by the third episode it is more or less screaming to you that it is old with its outdated conclusions and opinions. Why is that? The main reason is that the field of computing and the development of the PC have gone forward in an insane pace that I honestly doubt can be really contested by any technological field in terms of development with exception of the cellphone probably. To show how quickly the development has gone take a look at the following picture (Link provided below). To the left is an IBM 1 gigabyte Harddrive. To the left is a modern memorycard with 1 gigabyte of space. It took roughly 20 years for that to happen.

Size does matter

We have gone from simple single processor machines like the Apple 2 that lacked modern graphical user interface to dual core processing computers that are capable of producing some of the best graphics we've seen so far and there no signs of the development slowing down either. And that's the main problem with TotN; its age is showing way too clearly for someone in the 21st century. While it may be a good picture of the early days with the Altair and Apple 2, it is not a satisfactory view on the later developments since it more or less stops at the birth of the internet and the release of Windows 95.

Even the comment of Apples future as a declining company is now just laughable. Two years later, they release the first iMac and where more or less back on the star list again. And let's not forget the iPod, which is probably one of the main contributors to Apple being able to regain a foothold in the industry, and in turn more or less started the mp3-player revolution and the uprising of being able to buy music over the internet legally. This is also a problem with TotN, being made just in the early throes of the internet it doesn't really give an adequate picture of its entry into our society and the changes it have brought.

Other commentary made throughout especially the last episode also shows its age. For example, the leader of Oracle spoke about the PC going the way of the well and the bucket. I myself found that comment extremely laughable, because if that was the case, then what am I currently typing this on? A typewriter?

Which in turn makes me wonder, what happened to Oracle? Granted, at that time those comments might seem valid because no one really had any idea what was going to happen with the PC industry in the future other than what they saw what was happening at the time. I don't think Bill Gates himself would really imagine himself in his position today back then, and neither Steve Jobs would imagine him going back to Apple and be able to push it back up for its rut back then. But now we can look back a bit and see what has happened with the industry and how much it has changed.

However, at the same time it hasn't changed all that much. The basic nerd culture hasn't really changed all that much since the entry of the PC into our society. Still there are people living on too much Coke and pizza leftovers while they play games or trying to code something. Despite some of them becoming corporate suits for their own companies or others. Still that image remains and is still actively going on within the nerd culture. For why change something that has worked before?

Sure, the whole corporate of nerds' thing has vanished to some extent with a few exceptions to go back to a semi classic business model of offices and some order into it all. Sure there companies that go with a laid-back style, but they aren't as common these days or as visible like the early ones were. I would think that the burst of the cyber bubble during the 1990's has pushed some sense into people and those who made it through reorganized and became a little more efficient rather than a bit flaunty or boisterous. One good example of this was the game developers Ion Storms Dallas office, which was placed on the 54th floor in the JPMorgan Chase Tower in central Dallas and with the company logo on the floor made in Italian marble. They had too much of a focus on the image rather the product and only managed to produce one game before the office was closed down. Nowadays it seems that the image of a more relaxed company has returned somewhat, for example Google are known for having a sort of laid back relaxed office style and also having the "Twenty percent" time rule, which encourages workers to spend at least a day a week on projects that interests them. This rule has been the reason for the creation of ideas like Gmail and Google News among others. And has tried to become as non-corporate and stay out of the hierarchy model that usually permeates other companies today.

The rise of the personal computer has helped our society quite a lot by allowing us to quickly exchange views and ideas over media such as internet discussion boards or emails. But there is an inherent danger with this too. And that is the lack of the messages existence, a conversation on the internet via email or discussion board is forever lost if it's deleted, and the risk of this is that we barely leave anything behind as an image of our culture. Even things such as DVDs are known for having limited a lifespan before breaking down and not working. Especially if mistreated their lifespan shortens even more. The risk of this is that there won't be any historical remains of our culture as there has been with other cultures, which despite their age have left documents to show us a decent image of how it looked back then. But now with our increased culture of consumption there might be a risk of our society being a blank spot on the history chart if the unthinkable should happen to us.

While there are certain things that will probably be saved, such as news archives and such, it will probably not give a complete picture for future historians to puzzle together an image of how we lived. Worse if they suddenly base our society around the wrong material such as reality TV. This in turn would be rather amusing somewhat, but also a bit frightening because it would show us in the completely wrong light. So by now you are probably asking, "What should I do to prevent this? And can I really do something?"

In all honesty you probably really can't. Because saving every email you got by printing them out and stashing them somewhere could be a good idea. But with the multitude of emails that people tend to get this would end up as a waste of resources and in the end not really worth it.

So what else can you do really to try to give a good image of your daily life? You could strive to backup all the photographs and videos you've done onto several different Medias. And then remember to stash them in a good way so that they don't deteriorate so fast. That way you have something to give to future historians that ponder about what happened to our society. If the unthinkable should happen that is.

But for now you can worry about the massive amounts of spam that continues to plague your email account despite your attempts to filter it away. Or if your friend has really seen the latest message you posted on his MySpace account, or you really should blog about that annoying teacher in school. Remember though that you are doing this with a machine that started as something simple made by a few geeky guys in a garage and is now a multimillion industry, with many of the same garage geeks in high positions earning millions if not billions every day.

It is truly the Triumph of the Nerds isn't it? ;)

..and I'm sitting here again, writing a blog about it. Why? No idea why, but it's a good way to collect my thoughts about it.

Where to start then? Well honestly, it was once again rather bland story. Some interesting stuff. Some rather typical. Let's begin from the top with the conferences. First came the Microsoft one, which I didn't see because it ran 5 in the morning. I'm asleep by that time. But it did contain one or two interesting tidbits. Firstly we have the announcement that Gears of War is coming for the PC. Was it obvious? Oh yes. But that doesn't make it less good. One of my initial worries was that it would go the way of Halo 2 and Shadowrun by being Vista only. But I was surprised reading that it wasn't the case. Hopefully that will run true to the end and I might just buy it. Always good with a game you can just shoot stuff in a messy way. And the fact that we are getting at least some new stuff (in the beginning at least. It will be on Live at a sooner date I'm sure of it,) is always good. Gives a reason to buy it. And apparently you can play against 360 players. But if this will require a live account or not wasn't mentioned. Viva Piñata is also due for the PC, but it's of no concern for me honestly.

We can't really talk MicrosoftandE3without mentioning Halo 3. And this time around there was two trailers. More or less. First there was the Halo 3 trailer, which I saw and was mostly impressed by the musical score, which I will be getting when it comes out. The game looks more or less of the regular stuff. Some outdoor stuff, some indoor stuff and some vehicles tossed in. Nothing else special. I'll probably just read the story on Wikipedia and not bother about it. Sure does suck to be a Marine though. Firstyou had to face of against Elitesthat could massacre you, and now the Brutes whichare even worse. Ouch.Then there was the other trailer. The Halo Arms Race one. Now this one was a bit more interesting. Apparently the effects are made by Weta workshops. And while the blend of CG and Real life wasn't the bestsometimes it was still rather interesting to see a real life Marine armor. Will it be a precursor to how the movie will look? Who knows? If it is, we at least know that the weapons and armor looks more or less spot on. Resident Evil 5 looks cool. After the adventures in Not-Spain it's time for Not-Africa. Will it be more goofy Umbrella hijinks or are Illuminados involved instead?Remains to be seen. I will mention Call of Duty 4 later so. Mass Effect looks impressive from the trailer I saw. Story wise it seems both tight and impressive, but then again, looks can be deceiving. But why can't they just stick with guns instead of involving secret powers of some sort? Apparently they always have to go with that the main character is super-special-awesome and gain amazing powers instead of them being normal people put through the worst situations possible and pull it through anyway.Despite what my friends tell me, I will not get a 360 just for Ace Combat 6. Oh I would honestly, but for me it's enough witha Wii and a PC to have to buy games for. Who knows, maybe I'll just borrow it from a friend or something and then play it. Just as I did with Ace Combat 5. A game that I fell in love with in almost an instant. But I will definitely get the soundtrack. The soundtracks for the Ace Combat 4 to Ace Combat Zero games have been extremely impressive and I can't wait to hear what will come from AC6. (Surprisingly many games I'm getting the soundtracks for.)

After Microsoft came Nintendo, which I did have a chance to see actually. Despite the pitiful screen size of the stream. And once again, Nintendo managed to surprise me rather greatly. The Wii Zapper looks like a SMG and will be interesting to use in play. Will I get the game that it's more or less for? Probably not since Umbrella Chronicles looks rather dull and I prefer to play Medal of Honor on PC. But for games like Resident Evil 4 it might just be interesting to use with.Metroid Prime 3 looks like the same as the first two games but with added Wii controller support. Will I get it? Probably, as soon as I manage to finish the first game at least. The Wiiwheel looks almost embarrassing to use. Couldn't they at least make a bit bigger? Sure it's made to fit in the Wiimote, but still it looks like a kid's toy more than a wheel. Phantom Hourglass looks rather impressive with its controls and usage of the DS stylus, but since I dont own a DS I didn't really pay too much attention too it. And then there was one of the more interesting revelations of the conference. Namely Wii fit. Honestly I might just get it. Why? Because I'm a lazy slob and I actually need some exercise and this might just do a bit more fun. Sure it won't be the whole thing, but it sure beats sitting still or just moving your arms a bit. Then we have the Look at Mii channel. (Blame Nintendo for the pun and not me.) The idea for that is interesting, as it will people to mix and mingle with their Mii's. Will it lead to something more productive than just a showcase and some showcase of what you can do? Who knows, but I wouldn't be surprised if people tried to submit half a dozen variants of Hitler or someone else just to be funny. What I'd almost want to see is some more accessories for your Mii to further enable customization. The current selection is rather meek and it would be a good idea to further bolster it through downloads. I mean it has an internet connection that stays on 24/7for a reason really. Then they made announcements of a list of games that wasn't too appealing since they seemed to revolve around the similar theme of being J-RPGs. And mixing pokemon and Dragon quest smelled like trying to do a new franchise of new collect them all stuff. Ah wait... The Brawl release date. December 3rd. Congratulations you lucky sods in the US. I probably won't get it until January 08 or something. But who knows, they just might do a world wide release. But I have my doubts about that, so I'll just wait instead of hoping. I probably got other stuff to play anyway until that happens. Soul Calibur Legends looks like an interesting thing, but perhaps it might just come out a bit too generic with just swinging your sword around chopping up stuff.

And then we had last years laughing stock. Sony. Surprisingly they seemed to have learned something. But the focus on their whole Home ideas was a bit annoying.And as me and some friends pointedout, it looks almost like Second Life but without the furries and sex.And the games shown weren't that impressive, with some exceptions though. Haze looked like your generic shooter. The trailer was just silly with its live action parts. Apparently there is going to be a drug element to it. But why not show it in the trailer if it's one of the big things for the game? And as me and some friends joked on a ventrilo channel, the reason that it's PS3 exclusive is probably because everyone would have gone for Halo 3 instead of that. (Note: Checkingit up on it's info chart it actually says it comes out for the PC and 360. I'm almost certain they said it was exclusive. Guess I was hearing stuff wrong then.)Infamous looked very interesting and cool.But now in hindsight I'm not wonder if it's almost the PS3 response to 360s Crackdown with being a sandbox city and having powers at your disposal. But I digress; it might justbe me thinking too much into it.Was surprised reading that Unreal Tournament 3 is apparently PS3 lockeduntil 08, I almost suspect they're trying to attract sales for the consoleby having it so. I'd rather way for the PC version really, but that's me.Echochrome seemed a bit of a waste of having it for the PS3 too, seemed fit for a PSP game due to its simplicity.All you seem to do anyway is just to play with some optical illusions to get to the finish line. Warhawk looked likea console version of Battlefield, but with the oldflying game from last year in it,that's all I have to say about it.And why start building a back-story for Ratchet and Clank in the fourth game?Doesn't that seem a bit late to do, unless they've got 5, 6 and 7 planned too? Oh boy...Oh andwhyshow sports games like Madden and NBA like something special? We all know they come at least two or three times a year so why botherbroadcasting about them?And Heavenly Sword looks like God of War with just a female main character.AndI admit that I was very impressed by both the Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2 trailers. Graphics wise at least, but will Killzone 2 be nothing more than your standard shooter? That remains to be seen.AndI can't help towonder if those really will be the saving graces for the console.Sure there isLair (which I haven't bothered too much about, involved dragons or something) but people will probably mainly focus on those two games when it comes to the PS3.We've all heard of the lackluster sales of it, and then we have the rumors of MGS4 actually going multi-platform to cover the development costs. And then we of course have the big news, the PS3 price drop. This in fact isn't even a proper price drop as it turns out now. Instead they're dropping the price to sell out their stock and then we're back with the old price. Granted for the 80 GB Hard drive version. But we're still back to where it started from, and this might just still hurt their sales in the future. What's evenworse is that this drop isn't even going to happen in EU, despite it being a temporal one.And now rumors are abound that the 360 might just get a price drop. This might even hurt their sales even more.

Okay then, who was the best conference this year then? With the risk of sounding like a fanboy I might just have to go for Nintendo. While Microsoft had some interesting PC related stuff (more or less for once I'd say. Will Games for Windows pull through? Who knows,) it didn't have that much interesting. And Sony's just seemed bland. Especially since a couple of games they showed is going multi platform anyway. But Nintendo's announcements just seemed so much more interesting. The release date for Brawl (I know one friend of mine who was probably jumping for joy when hearing that), the aim for more online stuff for Wii. And even Wii Fit which is a very bold move by Nintendo in my book. Instead of becoming a media hub like what PS3 and 360 does with HD-DVD and Blue Ray, Wii is going for a whole different direction with its Wii Fit and tries to introduce some more motion into a gamer's daily life. And also tothe "common" audience. I mean we've all heard stories already on how the Wii is a great party tool and everything. Sure some might consider them straying a bit too far of the gaming thing, but that's almost a good thing since the 360 and PS3 is already filling in that nice with machines made for just pure gaming. Nintendo instead tries to be broad to everyone. And while yes the 360 and PS3 is that too, the Wii and Nintendo is a bit more with stuff like Fit and Brainage.

Now onto other stuff on E3, let's being with one of more interesting PC titles that were shown. Namely Call of Duty 4. One thing is for certain. I will get this game. Even the initial trailers had me hooked on it. And now the inclusion of some stealth in Chernobyl made it even more interesting. And modern era shooters aren't that common really. Sure there are a few like the Ghost Recon series, but they drown in WW2 shooters. So CoD4 seems very interesting, especially when they still keep to the same three campaign theme. I was quite amused to see that your SAS leader was Price. A very nice nod to CoD2. And the details of the Pre-E3 trailer just blew me away. (Spoiler warning for those who haven't seen it.) The scene where in the helicopter escaping the nuclear blast your looked incredibly awesome. The CoD games seems to be really good at immersive with putting you as the character inside of these events.Remember the Russian campaign of the first game with its initial parts in Stalingrad.Even just by showing how your character puts on the gasmask in the opening of the SAS part was very nice for immersion. Hopefully we will be seeing more of that in the game itself. Whenever that decides to pop out in stores. Have to keep an eye out for a release date. And probably upgrade my computer before that happens if I can't cover the specifications.

Another interesting game was S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. Despite it's faults and problemsI rather enjoyed the first game and the world it offered for you to roam in. And this prequel will most likely be a must buy. Hopefully they will add some more weapons than the standard one I saw in the combat movie. Oh and here's a tip, dont try to make it too obvious that you're using god mode when playing. That play style in combat movie was cringe worthy at best and just screamed the usage of god mode. Hopefully GSC will release more stuff for the base game itself, since they are still working on patches for it and the addition of faction wars and free roam mode just sounds too enticing to pass up. Will we ever see a coop mode? Even if it's just for two players max? Who knows? But I'd love for it too happen. You can always dream right?

Otherwise it almost seems it was a bit tame on PC news, or that was the impression I was given from Gamespots E3 coverage. Hopefully some other source I read will giveme something more later.In short mention:

Tabula Rasa looks nice. I still haven't received any notification if I'm in the Beta or not. With irks me since it seems at least worthy of a trial.

Age of Conan looks very impressive. Want to try at least once to see how the combat system works. Will probably stay away from MMOs for the time being.

Hellgate London still looks impressive. A bit saddened that's apparently Vista only due to DX10. Why doesn't it just have DX9 and DX10 like some other games is beyond me. But there's probably a reason somewhere.

No real new Starcraft 2 info other than just a few Protoss units revealed. Interesting to see that the Carrier returns under the name of Tempest. Will probably not get it since I didn't play too much of the first game.

Frontlines: Fuels of War looks a bit too much like a Battlefield copy but with drones and some other stuff added. Which wouldn't surprise me since I think the old Desert Combat team is involved. But the trailer still gave me a Battlefield semi-2142 impression.

Blacksite: Area 51 looks cool. Shooting aliens in modern times is always fun. Might just check it out later. When my computer can probably handle it.

Judging by thepreview given,F.E.A.R. 2 looks to be very awesome and more explosive than last time. Sadly that doesn't seem to be the case of the F.E.A.R. expansion, which all of a sudden seems to add a new character with the same super abilities as our original hero in the first two games. I should really play the first expansion other than just the demo, but what I read regarding the new one it just doesn't seem solid and rather lame.

Unreal Tournament 3 looks to be more of the regular stuff.Lot's ofexplosions and some newvehicles vehicles added to the fray. Never really played the other two so I probably wont be getting it.

World in Conflict is still on my buy list. But that's because I played the closed beta and now playing the open beta.

Didn't see too much about Assassin Creed. Looks to be very interesting, but perhaps require a decent machine to run properly.

I might get Splinter Cell Conviction, haven't read too much about it. But the change of play style seems interesting. Maybe I should get around and play Double Agent.

I've read about Fallout 3 before E3 and I'm still probably gonna get it. Despite all the whines from Zealous fans. (Three words to sum that up: It's not Canon!)

Sad to not hear anything about Spore. Hopefully we'll hear about it later.

Will I get the Katamari game for the Wii? Who knows?

Will I get the Sims game for the Wii then? Most likely.

And I will get Left 4 Dead. I am a sucker for coop games.

Will I get Bioshock? Of course. I loved System Shock 2 and I will get this "sequel".

So how could I sum up this year E3? Honestly, for me it was perhapsa bit dull. The news of GoW to the PC and a new STALKER game was cool. But there was a lack of really interestingor amazingPC news for me to see. Most of the gamesis already been under development for a while or been announced before E3.Or maybe I missed it or something.(Looking at the E3 PC page after the whole thing is finishedmaybe I did.)I dont know.CoD4 is nice,but the infoabout that hasbeen known since before E3. On the Wii front it was a bit brighter with Corruption and Brawl release dateand some of the upcoming stuff for the console. But there was something special about the old E3s when there usually was some pretty interesting PC news. Or maybe I'm just fantasizing or something. Maybe I'm getting nostalgic or something?

Another E3 has passed and everything is settling down again to its normal pace within the industry. Fans have begun to process the information they've gained and magazines are starting to conjure articles about what the got from the floors of E3.

For me the expo was a bland story. While some may argue that some of the revelations we're they biggest yet, I couldn't help not to be impressed by a lot of them. But I think that has to do with me being a PC Gamer more than a console gamer. Let's begin first with the Sony conference. I didn’t see it live, as it ran in the middle of the night where I live. So I skipped that. But judging from what I read from it, it was a rather meek one. The news about the PS3 wasn’t that much of an interest too me, and while I do agree the price tag was hefty, I wouldn’t wind myself up on it too much. Seeing as the 360 went for nearly the same price and people still bought it without hesitation. So I don’t think that will stop the fans, despite what some pessimists say. Because Sony is Sony and people loved the PS2 so the price of the PS3 won't stop many fans. Otherwise I got the feeling that nothing new was revealed. The gyro thing that everyone complains about, get over it. We all know that it isn't a new innovation by now, so no need to hang them in the gallows for that. The next conference on the line was Nintendo’s. This one I managed to watch as its timeslot was a lot better. To be honest, I really enjoyed this one. While it contained some number crunching that all conferences must have. The demonstrations shown were really interesting. From the Twilight Princess to the smaller sports games. It made me extremely interested in owning a Wii, something I never even considered before. Oh, and the jokes about its name are no longer funny. Get over it. As I said before, I'm extremely interested in getting a Wii; this was reinforced by some announcements later. But more about that later. And last on the line was Microsoft. This one I sort of skipped watching as the link to the video didn’t want to appear when the counter had reached zero. So I spent the time hammering at the F5 button to watch the blog. And now looking back, I didn’t miss anything by not watching the video. The MS one was the blandest of the bland to me. A lot of talking about XBL, something that is not of my concern, seeing as I don’t even own a 360 or an Xbox. And the games shown we're not that many. Gears of War might be nice, but seeing as I won’t play it, I'm not that interested. And I couldn’t but to laugh at the mistake they did with GTAIV, exclusively on 360? Yeah right. :P We'll probably even see a PC version later on or so. Fable 2 I didn’t care about either, never enjoyed the first game entirely, the final fight on the PC version was just a dull on the rail thing, and the whole game felt a bit boring. And way too many loading times, but that's more or less due to it being the Xbox version that was used, why didn’t even think of removing the loading times is beyond me. DOAX seemed more or less the same as DOAXBV with only jet skis as the real difference, and the impressed graphics for people to ogle at. This makes me thing of a statement that Kutaragi said, he considered the DOA girls as his own daughters. Interesting usage of them I have to say with DOAX and all. :P I was slightly disappointed when it came to light that it didn’t seem that Michael Ironside does the voice for Sam Fisher in Double Agent, as his voice is Fisher and nothing else it's sad to see that he's been replaced. So during the conference I mostly sat waiting for the PC part to arrive. Which it did, and I still wasn't that impressed. All they had as an onstage presentation was Crysis, which they said it was "Windows exclusive", another thing I highly doubt. It will appear on at least the 360 later on, if not being all of a sudden announced for a 360 release too. The Conan game I didn’t even bother about, nothing to interesting for me. The notion about dual release sounded bad for me, as I've played Oblivion and noticed the slightly annoying interface controls being all tied to the F-series of buttons. This was slightly annoying in the long run. So I don’t think I can greet that part with open arms yet, despite the fact that the 360 and PC being almost alike in some terms. And then came the Shadowrun game, I didn’t actually bother about it until some people complained it was a pure and utter butchery of the universe. So I took a peek at the trailer, and I have to agree, especially after spending some time reading about the universe on the net. The game can be aptly summarized as "Counterstrike Magic". Because that's more or less what it is, and FPS med CS theme only with some magic and fantasy races thrown in the mix. But seeing as it’s apparently for the Vista I won’t even bother about it, not planning to upgrade. After the PC part was over I stopped bothering about the MS conference, but I still remained because I knew they were going to reveal one thing more. And of course it came, Halo 3. I didn't jump for joy, as it was entirely expected to arrive, seeing as they blew the lid before E3. If they didn’t do that, the reaction could be slightly different. One though that flew through my head when I was matching the trailer was that I wanted the music. But that's just me I suppose. And no, the announcement of Halo 3 won't get me interested in getting a 360. I only played the first part on the PC (which I enjoyed), and the first part of Halo 2 on the Xbox. That's about it. And knowing that Halo 2 is coming out to the PC on Vista won’t entice me either. Don’t planning to upgrade to Vista anytime so. But enough about that.

Of all the conferences that were shown, I found that the Nintendo one was the strongest, as they had a lot to show in terms of games and usage of their console. While some may argue that the MS and Sony one had some strong cards, like Gears of War for MS and MGS4 for Sony, they weren't that much on hands on thing like Nintendo. All you were shown for those games were trailers, while Nintendo had on stage demonstrations with people actually playing the game with the controls and all. While I do remember that Sony had a demonstration with their gyro thing on their conference. But that wasn't as impressive as what Nintendo showed off. And that Tennis match was an extremely good way to show off how the whole thing worked in multiplayer. So I have to agree with the notion that Nintendo stole the show, although that could be split with MGS games and Halo 3. But I do believe that Dendrei_Aitrus was right when he mentioned in one of his video blogs that they only had to show Master Chief and they'll get a following. Which they of course did.

Now onto the other things that interested me at E3. I've always been a slight fan of fighting games, especially the Super Smash Bros. line, as they are to me the easiest to play, as I don’t need to bother with extreme combos that require and elaborate set of key combinations to master, or an set of blocks that you just have to use to counter every move from the opponent to win. It's just sit down and let it rip. This is why I got interested in hearing that the Wii is going to get a SSB game. Seeing how that is going to be played with the controls will be interested. But that we will probably know later on. It is slightly this games fault to adamanting my want in a Wii. As most of all know what new character besides some classic Nintendo ones (Mmm. Samus in a catsuit. :d) For those who don’t know, its the legendary console super agent Solid Snake himself. Seeing him a fighting game such as this will be extremely interesting. Especially in which fighting style he while use. And I do hope they will add some fun MGS themed power ups or special items. (Metal Gear Rex or Ray suddenly appearing out of nowhere and starting smacking stuff around would be awesome really.) And then with this game we don't even know the secret characters. Who knows, it could even be Raiden or something like that, to further add upon the MGS theme. But that we will hopefully know after the game is out.

To be honest I am slightly disappointed with Gamespots E3 coverage, it seems too centered on popularity with coverage on particularly the consoles and their upcoming games. And being a PC gamer at heart I was dying for some neat info about some of the new games, or even one or two new gold pieces that could entice me. While I did read some PC news, it wasn't as much as I wanted. Especially one game lacked coverage here, namely Operation Flashpoint 1.5, or Armed Assault as it's really called. I do know however (thanks to some inside information) that the game will receive cover somewhere else. So at least I'll know something about it. It's a bit dull to see the sequel to perhaps of the best military simulation games out there being virtually none covered. But, as one of my friends commented, it’s because of it being in the Kentia hall. This is to me a slightly shoddy reason to avoid it.

WoW got huge cover, which is nothing to be surprised at, it has moved away from game onto the stage of cultural phenomena. So it’s entirely natural that an expansion to a game like this would get a lot of cover. One fun to note is that according to one source was Vivendi told them that Blizzard wasn't about to announce something new at E3. Which I have to say got shot down pretty fast. First they revealed the WoW live action movie, after that the Alliance Race for the Burning Crusade expansion and lastly that they are either planning to work or are working with more new games on other consoles. If that isn't new announcements I don’t know what it is. Before the announcement at E3 people where theorizing wildly about what race it was going to be and the reasons why. While some theories were quite nice, others were bordering on stupid (To those with the worgen theories, go back to the White Wolf games will ya. :P) And now we know the race, it's the Draenei. But hang on you might say, aren’t they short and quite ugly. Well, these are a bit different. They are apparently how they looked from the beginning before the Burning Legion suddenly got interested in them. Which is quite cool actually, this means that they're doing new models for them instead of reusing an already ingame one. This is slightly visible with the Blood Elves. For some reason when it comes to the Draenei, I can’t wait to see how their racial emotes are going to be. Blizz has shown that they are quite good at giving each race their own specific set of emotes and such and I can't wait to see what they have to offer with the Draenei. And as one of the WoW trailers hinted, the Darkmoon Fair is in for some changes too. Will be interesting to see how that's going to work.

Another big game that had it fair share of cover was C&C3 Tiberian Wars. Not that much was said about it, but judging from what was said, we're in for some very interesting. Especially when the trailers last words were "Until they came" with a shot on earth from space. Looks like we are in for one helluva ride. Hopefully we'll know more later on. But one thing is for certain, the jump over to the sage engine hasn't hurt a bit. The game looks real slick with its graphics. Now the only worry is how they are going to do the FMV sequences, as the FMVs from Zero Hour was nothing compared to the excellency of Tiberian Sun. That and the fact that Frank Klepacki isn't involved with the music, original C&C cant be C&C with Frank’s music. I do hope they'll involve him, as Bill Browns General music wasn't that much of a hit. The US part stunk of R6 feeling. But hopefully they'll try to do the music justice. Or else it’s mute on that. But for now the information is way too sketchy to really build up a definitive opinion, for now the game looks good to me.

On the topic of music by the way, I was delighted to hear that Jeremy Soule will do the music to Supreme Commander, which is just excellent. Hopefully he'll do it in the theme of the Total Annihilation game. This is one soundtrack and game I can't to lay my hands on.

Supreme Commander and World in Conflict has definitely showed that nukes can be cool. (In games of course.) Especially SC shows that they can be cool with its massive destructive power. Though I have yet to see the WiC nukes, I've heard from a source it looks really nice. Hopefully a video of one will drop in sooner or later.

Splinter Cell Double Agent looked nice. Despite the disappointment with the lack of Michael Ironside. It will be interesting to see how the whole Double Agent thing will be done, and how the whole thing will affect the game. I have to see if I really want to play it. As I've never been that much of a fan with multiple ending, it makes me feel cheated on material if it suddenly comes clear to me that if I do a certain action I'll miss out or stuff. But hopefully I'll overcome that for this game.

What else is there to mention for me? Well, except the fact that Spore looks awesome, Neverwinter Nights 2 looks like a sure buy (MP sessions especially), and Company of Heroes look to cool (albeit a bit rugged still judging by the trailers). There isn't that much to mention. If they PC cover had been a bit bigger, there might have just been some more to say. But for now that's it really. Now it's time to wait for the magazines to drop in what they have to say about the whole thing. And I know one magazine in particular I'll be waiting for.