In the flurry of E3 madness, one of the most discussed topics has been the Playstation Motion Controller. Sony is eager to perfect the controls of the Wiimote with their own gizmo. Here is a pretty long video for you to behold showcasing the gadget in action:

Starting in August, players will be able to download full Xbox 360 titles via Xbox Live. Currently, this ability is available only to XBLA and Xbox Originals games, and will soon be extended to complete 360 releases.

The games will be released weekly at comparable prices to what you’d be able to grab the game for off the retail shelves. Purchases will be possible via credit card or MS Points. The Xbox Dashboard will require some sort of upgrade to integrate the service with the existing games store.

The three titles so far confirmed for the service are Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Civilization Revolution. While nothing has been confirmed, the possibility of a rental system is also in consideration.

Now you can be lazier than ever, as you won’t even have to move from the couch to get new 360 games.

November 17th – that’s when you’ll be playing Left 4 Dead 2. That falls right around the one year marker for the first game, qualifying this as a very quick sequel.

The sequel takes place in the southern USA, has five campaigns, four new characters (high school coach, news reporter, mechanic, con man). The campaigns will tell a greater overall story as you move through them instead of being entirely separate like the first game’s scenarios.

The zombies are a little tougher, there are new enemies (The Charger!), and a few new gameplay tactics will be required that will force you to approach hordes of zombies and special infected (like the witch) in different ways than you’ve become used to with the first release.

Below is the first bit of art released for L4D2, the movie poster for “The Parish,” one of the new levels.

L4D2 will also feature melee weapons, like a chainsaw, frying pan, axe, baseball bat, and more yet-to-be-revealed blunt objects. A new feature from Valve called the AI Director 2.0 will have an impact on the game by not only maintaining control of zombie quantities, hordes and special infected, but will alter world objects, weather and navigational routes for the player. This will help make each play through even more unique than the first game, as all aspects will be ever-changing.

With all the E3 madness going on today, there are a billion news stories flying around, most of which are mere shoutouts to eventual bigger stories. That being the case, the next few posts will be quick, but important.

Today, Metal Gear Solid Rising was announced for Xbox360 – and we learned that it will not be exclusive. Nonetheless, it will be the first modern Metal Gear title to venture away from Playstation exclusivity at launch, which is pretty awesome for fans of the series who only own other consoles.

The playable character will be Raiden, and he looks all scary and tough. Tons more to come on this, I’m sure.

During Microsofts E3 Press Conference, Bungie revealed the details on a top secret project they have been working on called Halo Reach. The announcement came with a video of a planet being  bombarded from space with smashed defenses. Not much else was revealed besides the “sometime in 2010″ release date.

If you are planning on buying ODST this fall, you will get early access to Halo Reach via the beta.

Here is the Halo Reach trailer from E3:

It’s time to pull out your buster swords, hop on a chocobo and say hello to your floating, legless grandfather. ESRB has given a rating to a PSN release of everyone’s favorite 1997 Squaresoft RPG, Final Fantasy VII.

Sometime soon, the timeless classic will be available for download and play on your PS3 or PSP console. FFVII was made available on Japanese PSN last month, and while no specific date is yet available, it won’t be long before those across the water can reminisce in what is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential games of all time.

Being that the game is so difficult (and expensive) to find as hard-copy these days, this will be a great way for players to get their hands on the title.

Perhaps Guitar Hero 5’s on-the-fly drop-in-drop-out difficulty changing gameplay has got you interested in the title. Perhaps you’re just a glutton for pretending to play music with a plastic instrument. Perhaps you are so excited that you’ve been dying for more information.

In that case, you’ll want to know the game now has a release date of September 1, 2009.

In that case, you’ll want to see a list of every band that will be included on the release. To your curiosity, I can provide. It is actually a fantastic looking list, and a beast to boot. 84 bands will be available for your jamming joy.

3 Doors Down
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Attack! Attack! UK
Band Of Horses
Beastie Boys
Beck
Billy Idol
Billy Squier
Blink-182
Blur
Bob Dylan
Bon Jovi
Brand New
Bush
Children Of Bodom
Coldplay
Darker My Love
Darkest Hour
David Bowie
Deep Purple
Dire Straits
Duran Duran
Eagles Of Death Metal
Elliott Smith
Elton John
Face To Face
Garbage
Gorillaz
Gov’t Mule
Grand Funk Railroad
Iggy Pop
Iron Maiden
Jeff Beck
Jimmy Eat World
John Mellencamp
Johnny Cash
Kaiser Chiefs
King Crimson
Kings Of Leon
Kiss
Love and Rockets
Megadeth
Mötley Crüe
Muse
My Morning Jacket
Nirvana
No Doubt
Peter Frampton
Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde
Queen & David Bowie
Queens Of The Stone Age
Rammstein
Rose Hill Drive
Rush
Santana
Scars On Broadway
Screaming Trees
Smashing Pumpkins
Sonic Youth
Spacehog
Stevie Wonder
Sublime
Sunny Day Real Estate
T. Rex
The Bronx
The Derek Trucks Band
The Duke Spirit
The Killers
The Police
The Raconteurs
The Rolling Stones
The Sword
The White Stripes
Thin Lizzy
Thrice
Tom Petty
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
TV On The Radio
Vampire Weekend
Weezer
Wild Cherry
Wolfmother

I’m very pleased to see APC, Bush, Johnny Cash and Rammstein in particular. After all my bitching, I’ll probably end up with this game… only to beat the thing on Expert in 2 days and feel completely unsatisfied.

Damn you Activision…

The new PSP Go. The video above releases some information and hardware specs.

16GB of internal storage and a memory slot for expandable memory and bluetooth.
No UMD drive.
A sliding screen.
One weird analog stick.
3.8″ screen.
The PSP 3000 will still exist.
Ugly as hell.

So far, the response from the handheld gaming community seems to be a resounding “ummm… really?”

Some alright-sounding titles have been discussed, like Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo ports. So? Take a peek at the Kotaku and Joystiq articles on the subject for a little more fodder.

What do you think?

It’s about time EA started working on a video game version of Walden. I haven’t had any contact with the literary work since 2003, where I spent weeks translating it into normal terms for my college roommate. Certainly, it’s time to revisit the pond.

If you’ve never read Walden, it’s a book about philosophy. Not Bioshock’s kill or don’t kill, man vs. God philosophy, but you know, the real stuff. Philosophy class stuff. As Thoreau once said, “Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.” Apparently, he’s good for a game.

In 1854, Henry David Thoreau went into the woods at Walden pond in Concord Massachusetts to live the simple life, alone, with hardly any necessities. He fended for himself, built the tools he needed to acquire the food he required and removed himself from the populous to think, life, and write. You can actually read the whole book for free online. The book is a bible in philosophy classes across the country and the work has turned into a staple of American literature.

It’s also not exactly something that would bash you over the head as making a great video game. Despite that, USC associate professor and video game educator/designer Tracy Fullerton (below) revealed that she is on a quest to bring the piece to consoles. Thoreau will remain unaware, as that was not one of the tools he took with him to the woods. The announcement was made at the Games for Change festival in New York.

Here is what she had to say about the team’s ambition to make the game:
“We were attempting to recreate the tenets of the philosophy. Within the mechanics of the game, we want to have the player re-enact the experiment of living that Thoreau took on when he went to live at Walden Pond.”

The project will attempt to recreate some of what went on while Thoreau lived on the pond. The project is still in its super early stages, though Fullerton has been discussing and planning the project with a little team of people for over a year. The title has no release date, and not even an ETA, as they are still figuring out things like player expectation, how to incorporate achievements (which would be in opposition to Thoreau’s message), and how to break player expectations. Basically, they need to create a game that will reflect the goals and teachings of Thoreau’s experiment and to which players will still respond.

It could work, given the appropriate care. Fullerton loves the idea of bringing this work to video game form, and her history and dedication could make it a success.

“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”
-Henry David Thoreau

January was a sad time for many gamers. All of a sudden, we were without our subscriptions to Electronic Gaming Monthly. The magazine’s brand, 1UP, was purchased by UGO in an effort to expand its conglomeration of website madness and print destruction, and the long-running magazine suddenly ceased to exist. It was a rough closure, as many multi-platform gamers treasured the magazine as one of the last remaining independent voices for the overall gaming community.

But wait! Steve Harris, the good fellow who founded the magazine back in 1989, has reacquired the dead magazine from publisher Ziff Davis Media. He once again holds the print and online publishing rights for EGM and plans to resume publication in the second half of 2009. Harris was quoted as saying he has “exciting plans for the evolution of what will once again be a leading independent voice for the gaming community.”

No official word has been given on staffing, whether or not the laid off writers will return to the gig, or whether or not the magazine will be reunited with 1UP. It is likely safe to assume many of the former staff have since found new jobs, but with Harris at the helm, we can hope he really does have some stellar plans to prove that a print magazine still has worth. EGM was important to the gaming community and should have little trouble getting back their readership, especially if they improve on many of the areas that lowered the quality of the magazine in its latter years.