Thanks to the ESA for tossing a little holiday joy to the game journalism community by announcing that next year's Electronic Entertainment Expo... er, check that, I mean next year's E3 Media and Business Summit... will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center as in days gone by instead of a handful of hotels and an airplane hanger in Santa Monica.

The Entertainment Software Association today announced that the E3 Media & Business Summit will be returning to the spacious digs of the Los Angeles Convention Center for next year's event which will run from July 15 through July 17. But that doesn't mean that the new E3 is returning to its old ways.

'We are very much not going back to the old E3," Rich Taylor, senior vice president of communications and research for the ESA, told me in an interview. "I think we are all on the same page for the industry on what we want those days in July to be about."

"This is the new E3, new and improved."

Thank goodness it's back at the LACC next year.  As much as I've come to like the new E3 format, schlepping from hotel to hotel to hanger to hotel was a bit of a grind.  It sounds like there won't be any kind of show floor at all for next year which does make me wonder what I'll do with my short bursts of downtime.  I know this year I found myself with an hour or two to kill between appointments sometimes which was a perfect opportunity to go to the hanger and see the sights, play the games, and snap photos.  The real E3 question, however, goes unanswered: will Electronic Arts provide a live monkey again next year?

Once again I have predicted the future with frightening accuracy.  Longtime PTB readers may recall my comments from before Nintendo revealed the Wii's secrets regarding the really big ultimate secret:

"I've read so many off-the-wall theories that at this point I half expect the controller to dispense yummy peanut butter candies whenever I achieve a new high score."

As time went on that candy comment turned into a running gag.  Well, have you seen this new Wii remote-shaped candy dispenser that's making the rounds online?  Vindication!  But where does the Wii nunchuk connect?  And is it backward compatible with Skittles? 

So, Sony chairman Howard Stringer has some clear thoughts on how the PlayStation 3 stacks up against the Nintendo Wii in terms of overall fun experienced (also known in official circles as the OFE index).  Here's what he had to say while chatting with the UK's Guardian:

"I'm happy the Wii seems to be running a bit short of hardware. The PlayStation 3 will come into its own because its [high-end games] are infinitely more fun, demanding and exciting. The question people quite rightly asked was if the PS3 was going to get through this early cycle. I feel much more confident about that now."

Infinitely more fun, eh?  Well, considering the high cost involved in getting on board with the PS3, I should certainly hope so.  BA-ZING!

(via Game|Life)

When it comes to unwrapping holiday gifts there is nothing more pulse-pounding than tearing away the first wad of wrapping paper from a game-shaped box.  Are you about to get the game you wanted most of all or will you have to put on a weak smile and thank your ill-informed grandmother for complete junk?  The gang at NeoGAF are discussing crappy holiday gaming gifts of years gone by.  Behold this tale of woe from LostFragment:

A few days before Christmas one year (I must've been about 7 or 8), I was alone in the house for a bit so I decided to try and peel back a corner on some of the presents to see if I could find out what they were. I took a particular interest in one of them because it was in the shape of an NES box. I peeled one of the corners back to reveal the Nintendo Seal of Approval. Excited, since we were ultra poor and I almost never got any new games or anything, I retaped the corner so that my mom wouldn't notice and spent the next few days wondering what game it was.

Then on Christmas morning, after opening up all my other presents, it was time to see what game I got. After taking my time unwrapping, I laid my eyes on...a fucking NES cleaning kit. I was not happy.

I've been fortunate in that while growing up my gaming gifts were always either something I'd asked for or something unknown that turned out to be good anyways.  I credit my extensive holiday wish lists for that, as I'd start typing up my most wanted games on the old Commodore 64 around the beginning of November.  Each item on the list included the game title, publisher, system, and basic storyline.  Unfortunately, I was using Nintendo Power as my guide for release dates, meaning that I sent my parents on wild goose chases in search of games that weren't yet released all too often.  Sorry about that, Mom and Dad.

Despite the pain that sub-par Sonic the Hedgehog games have inflicted upon me lo these many years I keep coming back to the franchise in the hope that someday Sega will get it right and rediscover the magic of the blue blur.  Sometimes the company comes close.  Last year's Sonic Rivals approaches the old glory days, and while the new sequel Sonic Rivals 2 for the Sony PlayStation Portable mixes up the formula somewhat, it's still more fun than one would expect.  AMN has just published my review of the game.

Sonic Rivals 2 preserves plenty of material from its predecessor. The familiar head-to-head racing aspect is firmly intact, providing the same levels of challenge and speed seen previously. There's nothing wrong with a little repetition when the result plays so well, however. The game does mix up the formula at times. Zones are broken up into four parts this time versus three parts as seen in the original Rivals. Acts 1 and 3 are the familiar races, and Act 4 is a boss act where players try to be the first to destroy Eggman's latest weapons, but Act 2 is a one-on-one battle that uses the same gameplay as found in the racing acts, and confines the action to a single closed room instead of a Point A to Point B path. Characters can use items and direct homing attacks on each other with ultimate victory going to whomever can pummel ringless opponents again and again. Other main gameplay tweaks include time attacks, hidden Chao collecting, acquiring a certain amount of rings, and other such things that attempt to keep the racing aspect fresh.

The only real issue I have with the game is its new battle mode that takes the gameplay focus off of speed and instead requires precision platforming, something that is ill-advised when dealing with characters who basically have no brakes.  Beyond that I'm looking forward to the inevitable Sonic Rivals 3 provided the development team can maintain the momentum continued here.

With the holiday shopping season upon us it seems only appropriate for a little refresher course in spotting counterfeit game cartridges.  Today's lesson is about how to identify a fake Game Boy Advance cartridge.

The real cart has a well-printed, well-designed, cleanly cut label. The fake has a blurry, poorly printed, poorly cut scan of the cover art. Nintendo would never let graphic design like that get out the door - it looks like hell. You can see the difference in the logo molded into the plastic between the two cartridges. The real cart also has numbers embossed on the label that are not present on the fake.

While picking out gifts for friends and loved ones this year be sure not to be taken in by fake cartridges and accessories.  Remember that the fakes aren't limited to appearing only on eBay, as sometimes actual physical stores wind up stocking counterfeits.  Always insist on the genuine article.

My friends, I come to you today with the answer to a question that has been raised more than any other question in gaming history.  Yes, today is the day that we finally find out what Michael J. Nelson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax fame has been playing on his Sony PlayStation 3.

Because I pen a regular column for Home Theater Magazine, I thing you’ll agree that it was essential that I be able to write intelligently about Blu-Ray. And I’m certain you’ll find no fault with me for taking the most sensible, economical approach by picking up the highly regarded Play Station 3, which offers excellent Blu-Ray playback. Furthermore, I feel confident that you’ll agree that I had to procure a game or two just to test the system’s core strengths. And seeing as you’re a reasonable person, I know you won’t find fault with me for spending a number of hours putting Resistance: Fall of Man through its paces, as well as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin’s Creed and just recently, and with a great deal of entirely warranted shame, Pain.

Here's hoping Nelson has more to say about games as time goes on.  I have a feeling that he and his riffing cohorts could tear apart a dreadful video game just as entertainingly as they can tear apart a dreadful movie. 

With the holidays upon us once again it's time for the networks and syndicates to drag all kinds of dusty holiday specials out of the vault for an airing.  Traditionalists may want to spend Christmas with Charlie Brown or Garfield, but the discerning gamer among us will make camp with everyone's favorite pellet muncher, Pac-Man.  Platypus Comix has a look at the 1982 holiday special Christmas Comes To Pacland.

Next on the snowly agenda for the Pac-Family is motorized sledding. Unfortunately for them, the Ghosts (Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde, and Sue) show up while they're in the middle of this activity and, being the scoundrels they are, spoil it. Clyde (the orange ghost with the matching orange derby) appears to be the leader, and he remarks "There's the Pacs! Now's a good time to chomp 'em! Actually, anytime's a good time to chomp 'em!" He laughs at how clever he just was. A possible better line could have been, "Hey, there's a baby! Let's eat it!" They mean the same...

I was too young to catch this special when it first aired, but I do have memories of seeing it years later on some forgotten UHF station.  You don't need old fashioned rabbit ears to party with Pac-Man now though, as this special is available for free legal viewing in North America at AOL's In2TV service.  After you watch it be sure to flip over to the Perfect Strangers channel and watch Larry and Balki save Christmas, then change to the Head of the Class channel to see Arvid save Christmas.  You know, it's a wonder we have Christmas at all considering how often some evildoer tries to derail it.

Remember those statues of gaming characters such as Samus Aran, Link, and Skull Kid from First4Figures?  Sure you do.  It would seem that the next Nintendo character to be immortalized in statue form is a Metroid spacecraft.  The company sent out this teaser image in their latest newsletter (click it to see it in its original slightly larger size) along with this clue:

Hint - allows an intergalactic bounty hunter to go planet hopping!

I'd like to think that this is Samus Aran's spacecraft we're talking about, but I have this sinking feeling that it'll wind up belonging to one of the non-Samus bounty hunters from Metroid Prime Hunters and, frankly, that's not nearly as exciting.  The official announcement of whatever this is will come later in the month, apparently. 

I'm glad to see that most of you still trust gaming reviews.  We all have our favorite sources when it comes to reviews, and it can be difficult to find quality reviews in some cases.  Everyone has an opinion, but not everyone can write that opinion out in an informative and entertaining way.  Personally I tend to take away more from actual written text than any kind of numerical score.  One of my friends is always rating games as, say, a 7.2 or a 9.1, but he can't back up those numbers with solid reasoning and explain why he chose those specific numbers.  Numbers mean nothing without the criticism or praise to back them up.

Moving on, let's talk about stories.  More specifically, let's talk about the kinds of stories in our favorite games.  There's wacky silly stories about turtle kings kidnapping princesses, serious tales that take place during World War II or a zombie invasion, and then of course some games have no actual story at all (unless you can somehow explain why those Tetris pieces are falling, of course).  When it comes to the silly and the serious, which do you prefer?  Let's hear your thoughts.