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Games: E3 round up

Resident Evil 5: Looks pant-numbingly brilliant

As you may be aware, the great and the good of the gaming world descended on LA recently for E3, the annual trade show for all things console-y.

It's a chance for the press to get a sneaky peak at what's coming up over the next 12 months. So the world now knows about the neighbour-pleasing Hendrix additions to Guitar Hero, how September 26 will be the release date of Lego Batman (oh happy day!), that Resident Evil 5 is looking very nasty indeed and that Streetfighter IV will be coming to an arcade near you soon.

As far as the big three of the gaming world were concerned though, it was all about new developments. For Nintendo, this was the announcement of a motion-control device for the Wii. Which sounds a bit like Ford announcing that their new product will be a car.

The Wii MotionPlus is the new development, a plug in for the existing Wii Remote which will, apparently, make the controls even more precise thanks to three multiaxis gyroscopes which will 'track rotational movement across all three axes in 3D space.' What does it mean? Basically, if you throw a frisbee in the accompanying new sports game, Wii Sports Resort, the angle you hold it at will change. For racing games, the combination of Wii Remote, MotionPlus, and Nunchuk will become handle bars and rotating the MotionPlus sensor will activate the throttle.

A little underwhelming but we'll wait until we've played with one to really decide.

For the other Big Two, the online experience was the key thing. Microsoft's Live function is undergoing a complete redesign to make things less cluttered and easier to find. They're also adding something called Primetime, a new area that will give users a whole new way to play joint games. This basically boils down to... live interactive gameshows. Woo.

More interesting was the announcement of a tie-in with Netflix – the US equivalent of Love Film – which will allow US subscribers streamed access to more than 10,000 movies and TV shows at near DVD quality. How this will translate to the rest of the world remains to be seen.

Microsoft will also be adding a 'community' channel to make socialising online easier which overlaps with Sony's big announcement: Sony Home. This is a new title that will combine gaming, music, and movies online. From what we can gather, it's a bit Second Life-ish. Users will be able to wander around the artificial world, to buy 'property', hang out in shops and meeting areas, watch films and visit a gaming arcade.

Apparently you can even listen to music and make your avatar dance, 'go' to the cinema with friends, hang out in game-themed 'bars'... All from the comfort of your own sofa without ever actually having to interact with real people.

Is it us or does this just sound like the Onion's brilliant World of World of Warcraft?

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