e3

Games on wheels: Eclectic cars roll into E3

LOS ANGELES--A varied collection of new and custom cars rolled into this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo to promote car-friendly games and hype 2011 models appealing to younger drivers with a little money to burn.

Automakers know they have a captive E3 audience in the much-beloved "young adults with disposable income" demographic as the game mega convention invites only professionals connected to the industry. So car companies put their new, tech-enhanced midrange models on display in hopes that attendees will head their way with their game industry paychecks.

This year's E3 featured an interesting cross-marketing scheme enabling players of EA games such as Sims 3 and Monopoly to download cars on display--like the 2011 Prius or the 2011 Ford Fiesta Platinum--directly into the games as playable options.

Last year's E3 served up more extreme super cars on the floor as EA's Need for Speed line rolled out new titles for consoles and mobile devices, opening the door for the appearance of the rare Pagani Zonda F and Mercedes Benz AMG SLK. But this year saw THQ choose a beat-up, aging Honda Civic owned by Enrique Trinidad of Henderson, Nev., for a complete overhaul to promote its Saints Row 3 game.

For a look at the cars of E3 2011, see our gallery below.

The top 20 games of E3 2011

Another E3 has come and gone, leaving gamers and journalists equally dizzy with anticipation. We saw dozens upon dozens of titles at the big show but only a few can be called "best of."

We've wracked our brains to bring you the 20 titles we were most excited about in an easy-to-use slideshow. Not sure you agree with us? Make sure to sound off in the comments section below or click on over to see if the title you're most excited about landed in our short runners-up list.

Even though these titles missed our top 20, there's still plenty to look forward to from:… Read more

Friday Poll: Most impressive company at E3?

E3 2011 is officially over, but with it came lots of new details on hardware and software from the three major players in console video games.

Microsoft showed off a slew of upcoming Kinect-enabled titles, plus Live TV on the Xbox and some exclusive games. YouTube and Bing will also be available via the Xbox, while voice control will enable players to interact with the Xbox and future games in a unique way.

Nintendo perhaps stole the show, revealing the successor to the Nintendo Wii: the Wii U. The gaming giant also revealed a special new controller for its upcoming console that contains a 6.2-inch touch screen and other familiars, somewhat like a tablet. The company also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Zelda in grand fashion.

Sony, meanwhile, stunned many with the news that the quad-core handheld gaming device once known as NGP and now known as PlayStation Vita would have two models that cost less than $300. The Japanese company also surprised everyone with the announcement of a 24-inch PlayStation-branded 3D HDTV with dual passive 3D view, enabling two gamers to see different things on the same TV.

Which console company impressed you the most during E3 2011? Vote in our weekly poll. And please be sure to elaborate in the comments section.… Read more

Apple starts writing its next chapter (week in review)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a busy week showing where his company is headed.

As expected, Jobs kicked off the week by announcing an online storage service called iCloud that's designed to make it simple to wirelessly share music, e-mail, photos, calendars, and other data between handheld gadgets and desktop computers. iCloud casts shadow over other cloud services Apple's iCloud and what it means for wireless data service MobileMe is dead--long live iCloud Verizon iPhone not yet ready for iCloud How to stay synced with iCloud How iCloud could improve your gaming, movie experiences … Read more

E3 2011: 5 things I learned

LOS ANGELES--Another year, another show floor filled with bright lights, thunderous music, and scantily dressed women showing off big-budget studio games. Sometimes it feels like E3 never changes.

Yet, I've been to roughly 10 E3s in my life dating back to the Sega Dreamcast debut, and in my first on-the-show visit in a few years, the landscape has subtly and definitely altered from years past.

So here are my final observations about this year's show.

Everyone wants to be accessible. The … Read more

E3 2011: Three is a magic number

LOS ANGELES--Look around the halls of E3 2011, and you might notice something strangely similar about many of the most-hyped games on display. There's Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, and Mass Effect 3. BioShock Infinite is the third game in that series, and Skyrim is the third modern/console version of an Elder Scrolls game (technically, it's the fifth game in the series, as there were a couple of prior PC games back in the '90s). We've also spotted Saints Row: the Third, Serious Sam 3, and Ninja Gaiden 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution (the third game in that series), and there are probably a few others I've missed.

This collection of third-timers is partially a coincidence, and partly indicative of the industry's addiction to sequels. With production and advertising budgets at or near what Hollywood movie studios have been spending for years, there's a natural, and very understandable, attraction to finding a successful formula and sticking with it.

A trilogy is also a familiar construct from the larger media world that consumers are comfortable with, and the format is useful for putting together a compelling story arc over the course of three films or novels. But while most movies quit after three outings, there's no doubt you'll be seeing a fourth chapter in many of the game franchises above within a year or two. … Read more

E3 2011: Nyko says it's solved Kinect floor space issue

LOS ANGELES--One of our biggest gripes with Microsoft's controller-less motion system was the fact that it required quite of bit of real estate to function properly. A minimum of 6 feet from the camera seemed to be the sweet spot, but even at that distance we've experienced some nags with gameplay.

Small apartment living rooms like the ones we're used to in New York may now be able to accommodate Kinect with Nyko's Zoom for Kinect accessory. Thanks to a series of what we'd describe as an arrangement of wide-angle lenses, the $30 snap-on accessory sits over the standard Kinect array and drops the space prerequisite by 40 percent. That's a bold claim, so we had to try it out for ourselves.… Read more

E3 2011: Where are the social games?

For a trade show all about the latest and greatest in interactive entertainment, it's somewhat shocking that many of the most popular video games being played right now are either underrepresented, or not represented at all. We are, of course, speaking about the social and casual games that have audiences larger than almost any traditional console game, and what's more, have managed to tap into the recurring revenue stream of microtransactions that seems to elude so many others.

This is no unintentional oversight. Many attendees of E3, the Game Developers Conference, and other industry events say that games such as Farmville and Cityville are not "real games," and that even mentioning them in the same breath as Halo or Gears of War would be to cheapen the entire medium.

At E3, these kinds of games are woefully underrepresented, despite having in many cases tens of millions of players (MAU, or monthly active users, is the standard metric for social games--the most popular game of this genre, Zynga's CityVille, currently has 90 million monthly active users). If you looks around artfully, however, you can still find a few examples. EA's social/casual subsidiary PlayFish, is here, and has scored with games such as Pet Society and Madden NFL Superstars. At E3, a portion of EA's giant floor space was devoted to The Sims Social, a Facebook version of the popular suburban life simulation game. … Read more

E3 after hours: Gadgets you won't see on expo floor

LOS ANGELES--At the ShowStoppers expo last night, some E3 presenters got the chance to show off their wares in a more peaceful, intimate environment than the bustling show floor. Reporters were invited to the LA Icon Ultra Lounge after the opening day of the expo wrapped for a gathering of game hardware and peripherals designers offering new products this summer.

About 100 reporters enjoyed food and drink while sampling new gadgets and high-end tech offerings from Alternativa, G5 Entertainment, Gioteck, Jakks Pacific, Mad Catz, Plantronics, Plextor, PNY Technologies, Reverb, Rude Gameware/Cyber Snipa, Samsung Consumer Memory and Storage and Samsung Mobile.

Some of the more popular items on display included the new, mobile-game-friendly Samsung Galaxy Tab and Samsung's 470 SSD internal drive to power more advanced PC gaming systems. Also, the sexy line of Gioteck peripherals offered gamers headsets and control pads with sleek stylings and swappable color and design schemes.

See images of other products from the under-the-radar event in the gallery above.… Read more

E3 2011: The Sims Social to offer Facebook flirting

Electronic Arts is hoping to convince folks to covet thy neighbor's wife. Or that co-worker you've always lunched with. Or your college sweetheart.

Virtually, of course.

At E3, a show that caters to hardcore gamers who stand in long lines to get the first chance to play soon-to-be-released action titles, such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Assassins Creed: Revelations, EA's new title in The Sims franchise has gone a bit below the radar. But The Sims Social, which will launch this summer on Facebook in five languages, would seem to have all the prurient … Read more