E3 2009

So for all of you crazy people who don't use the internet (I guess you couldn't be one of them if you are reading this), E3 2009 is in full blast! Head over to kotaku.com for all the news you'll need to know and then check out gametrailers.com for all of the videos you'll need to see. When all the dust settles I will follow up with a summary of all the big news and game announcements from each of the big 3, respectively. Well, respectively excluding the 360. Yeah, I'm biased.

Nintendo: Unleashed

My thanks to kotaku.com for the coverage of the event.

Pardon the cheesy title, but for all of you who have been following Nintendo's Fall Press Conference, it really shouldn't surprise you that I am quite excited. Nintendo decided to hold their own conference this year in light of the fact that they wouldn't be attending TGS next week. I couldn't really care less because what they revealed at the conference was about two to three steps past amazing. Aside from the huge number of games that would be coming to both the DS and the Wii in the upcoming year, Nintendo officially announced their new version of the DS, the DSi.



I know what you're thinking, "why do we need a new DS? I just bought my Lite!!" Well, the DSi will feature a built in camera, an internet browser, a DSiware "channel", an SD slot (which peaks my interest because I know this feature will be exploited in a matter of days), and two 17% larger screens (they are dropping the GBA slot) among other things. As of now, Nintendo has no plans of bringing the DSi to the states until later 2009 (whatever that means), but Japan is expected to get the new handheld November 1st. Yes, this upcoming November 1st. It's insane.

Also in big news, Nintendo has finally decided to grant us Americans access into their "rewards" program appropriately titled Club Nintendo. Yes, you'll finally be able to take all those cool Nintendo surveys, and register all of your awesome Nintendo products to collect points that will eventually net you "premium" items. All I can say to this announcement is that it is about damn time. Hell, South Africa got access before we did. South Africa.

Anyways, because Kotaku has been awesome enough to provide coverage of the event, I will provide you with links relating to everything I talked about and more. That's right, I am going to extreme lengths to link other sites to text on my own. Yeah, you're welcome.

*Note: The links with asterisks at the end are videos. You should really see them because a lot of the upcoming games look really cool. I only hope that all of them are bound for non-Japanese shores as well.

DSi News

• Nintendo Announces New DS: The Nintendo DSi
  
• First Look At New Nintendo DSi in Action************
• DSi To Hit Europe in Spring 2009
• Let's Compare the DS Lite and the DSi
• Could the DSi Encourage Piracy?
• DSi Not Bound For U.S. Until Well Into Next Year
• Get A Good, Close Look At The DSi
• Close Up With The DSi (Alright, Who's Buying?)
• More About DSi Camera, DSi Sound
  

General Nintendo And Wii News

• Save Wii Games Direct To SD Card
• Nintendo's New Wii Games
• Nintendo Re-Releasing Gamecube Games On Wii
• Club Nintendo Finally Coming Stateside
• Wii Speak Channel Coming Next Month
• Nintendo Promises Increased Wii and DS Supply For The Holidays
• Japan, This Is Your Wii Line Up***********
  

Final Fantasy XIII To Be Released On 360

For all you crazy people out there who didn't know this, E3 kicked off today with Microsoft's briefing conference. While I found the majority of the briefing to be lackluster, Resident Evil 5 slated for March '09 and Gears of War 2 to be released whenever, the heaviest hit came when Square-Enix head Yoichi Wada stunned the crowd by announcing that the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII would be releasing on the Xbox 360 as well as the Playstation 3. This is huge news. HUGE. This would be the first Final Fantasy from the main series to be "released" without Playstation exclusivity since Final Fantasy VI, which was adapted to the Playstation from the original Super NES version.

Now I'm not exactly sure how this happened... well that's not true, I know exactly "how" it happened and it rhymes with "wuge wums of woney." What I really want to know is how Sony allowed this to happen. Final Fantasy has always been a big seller for the company in the past, and this news coupled with the Xbox 360's recent price cut could mean big trouble for them. I suppose we'll just have to learn more before we can make any true predictions as to how this will play out, but I fear Sony isn't going to like the result.

Anyhow, below I've included the new trailer for the game, and I must say that I'm fairly impressed. I'll report later when more of the actual gameplay for FF XIII is shown. For now, however, just enjoy the trailer. Nintendo and Sony's briefings are set for tomorrow around 9 A.M. Pacific. It will be interesting to see what they have in store, respectively.